Coach proud of young girls team
MEDICAL LAKE — A young Bronco girls basketball team (1-1) kept pace with Medical Lake for a quarter, but the Cardinals depth helped them prevail, 48-41, on Friday, Dec. 9.
Head Coach Bryce Court said he was proud of his team, which only has three seniors with limited experience. The Lind-Ritzville/Sprague/Washtucna/Harrington girls have two freshmen and five sophomores on the varsity lineup.
“I’m super ex cited at how we did against a team like that,” he said. “They’re a big team, a fast team. We’re a young team.”
Medical Lake (2-1) brought seven juniors and one senior to the nonleague game.
The Cardinal girls took a 13-12 first quarter lead, but doubled up on the Broncos in the second quarter to take a 30-20 lead into the locker room at halftime.
“The girls still don’t really know what their roles are,” Court said of his team. “They’re still trying to find an identity.”
At the half, Court told the young Bronco girls to communicate.
That advice paid off and the Broncos came out on fire in the third quarter, closing the margin by 7 points.
At the end of three quarters, Medical Lake led 35-32.
The Bronco girls narrowed the score to 35-34 with 6:20 left in the game and then took the lead, 36-35, with 5:45 remaining.
In the ensuing 2-and-a-half minutes, the Cardinals held the Broncos scoreless and added 5 points of their own to take the lead and capture the momentum heading in to the last couple minutes.
Court said his team was feeling the pressure in the waning minutes of the game.
“Our next couple possessions went down,” he said. “I think we shot hurried shots. It’s tough to fault aggression, but we didn’t need to be aggressive right there.”
A little flustered, the Broncos “lost sight” of the Medical Lake shooters, Court said.
“And they made shots that pulled them back a head,” he said. “I think we panicked a little bit — that’s age.”
The Cardinals held off the Broncos, taking the fourth quarter, 13-9.
Cardinal juniors Delaney Gunther and Charde Luat led all scorers with 18 points each. Gunther’s tally included five, 3-pointers.
Freshman Zoe Galbreath paced the Broncos with 16 points. Sophomore Maddi Cameron added 12 and freshman Saige Galbreath had 6.
“Maddi played really well, as a small undersized post,” Court said. “She did a really good job amongst the trees.” Others putting points on the board for the Broncos included Addy Colbert with 4, Harlee Hennings, 2; and Jojo Ewing, 1.
Zoe Galbreath led the Broncos outside the arc with 2 buckets.
“We really put a lot of pressure on Zoe as a freshman to bring the ball down the floor,” Court said, also crediting Saige Galbreath for her effort. “She does very well.”
For the Cardinals, Chiche Okembgo scored 4 points, Cassidy Fitzpatrick 6 and Tessa Appel 2.
Cameron pulled down 7 rebounds and Ewing 6 for the Broncos. Saige Galbreath had 5 rebounds and Hennings 4. Colbert and Zoe Galbreath had 3 each.
Reagan Snider added 2 rebounds.
Lind-Ritzville had 14 fouls in the game to Medical Lake’s 12.
Saige Galbreath was the only player to foul out.
The loss was the first of the season for the Broncos, who opened with a 50-40 win over the Almira-Coulee/Hartline Warriors on Saturday, Dec. 3.
In that game, Cameron led all scorers with 14 points. Teammates Saige Galbreath and Zoe Galbreath each had 11 points.
Colbert and Hennings each had 6 points and Ewing added 2.
Senior Prairie Parrish led the Warriors with 12 points.
Cameron had 12 rebounds for the Broncos and Hennings, Zoe Galbreath and Saige Galbreath each added 7.
Ewing had 5 rebounds, Colbert 4 and Wellsandt 2.
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, columnist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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