By Dave Vrbas

The Wauneta Breeze

A difficult run of four games in six days, two against state-ranked teams and all four against teams with winning records, netted a lone win for the Lady Bronco basketball team. And that single win was no cakewalk.

The Broncos’ impossibly difficult six-day hoops marathon began last Monday at the Cambridge Invite, and against Class C-1’s seventh-rated Southern Valley Eagles.

Dropping the match to an defensively-aggressive and offensively-effective Southern Valley team, 39-22, the Broncos moved on to face perennial powerhouse Cambridge.

Against Cambridge, the Broncos collected a whole handful of wasted opportunities that gave Cambridge their second win against the Broncos this season, 50-42, and the Broncos finished the tourney fourth out of four teams.

On the road at Class D-2’s seventh-ranked Hitchcock County on Friday, the Broncos could only put together one strong half of play, dropping their intensity after halftime and thus the game, 45-30.

Hosting Southwest on Saturday, the Broncos redeemed themselves, pulling off a one-point win, 51-50 and earning their coach his 300th career victory.

Loss to 10-1 Southern Valley

A tradition of standing up until the first Bronco bucket of the game is scored left the WP crowd on their feet for quite a while during the first round of the Cambridge Invite.

Southern Valley, 10-1 and rated seventh overall in Class C-1, stormed the court and tossed in several buckets before the Broncos could even get their offense set up. 

Blasting out to a 14-3 first-quarter blitz, Southern Valley was slowed down a bit by the Broncos’ defense in the second quarter. WP was able to keep balanced scoring in that quarter, 7-7, to trail 21-10 going into halftime.

With fairly even scoring for the rest of the game, the Bronco defense was able to prevent an absolute drubbing by the Eagles, 39-22.

With just 22 total points scored, the Broncs had no athletes in double figures for the game. Katie Flaig and Bethany Riener led with eight points apiece. Rebecca Strand added four and Shelby Hamilton added two.

Sheyla Christner led on the boards for WP, pulling down eight rebounds as the Broncos were outrebounded, 35-27. Flaig and Strand led in steals with two each.

Rematch against Cambridge

A settling of the score against the Trojans, who posted only a three-point win in the first meeting of the two teams earlier this season, just wasn’t in the cards.

Slow to get started, the Broncos could never quite overcome a 14-2 first-quarter walloping by the Trojans, even after outscoring them in the second and third quarters.

In the second, the Broncos pulled to within seven at 25-18, and ended the third quarter at just a four-point deficit, 38-34. Cambridge held on for the win though, posting the 50-42 victory in the final quarter.

Riener and Flaig led the Broncos, posting 14 and 10 points respectively. Riener also led in steals with six and assists with five. Flaig contributed four assists.

Other Broncos scoring were Renae Gardner with six, Strand and Jenae Bischoff with four each, and Hamilton and Dawnta Harchelroad with two points apiece.

The Broncos led on the boards, pulling down 27 rebounds to Cambridge’s 18, but turnovers hurt the Broncos. Cambridge had the advantage in turnovers in the game, throwing the ball away 18 times compared to the Broncos’ 30 turnovers.

On the road at Trenton

The Broncos looked sharper than ever, but as 10-2 Hitchcock County amped up their intensity in the final half, the Broncos looked devoid of any intensity with which to combat them.

“Hitchcock County is an extremely good team,” Bronco head coach Roger Lauhead said. “But we had a chance to beat a really good team and got satisfied with playing a good first half of ball.”

The Broncos used some strong defense to post a 7-5 first-quarter lead and trailed just 15-14 going into halftime. Coming out after the half, it was clear which team came to play ball, the Falcons posting a 16-10 scoring tilt in the third and ran away with the game in the fourth, outscoring WP 14-6 in the final quarter of play to take a 45-30 win.

Flaig and Gardner led the Broncos with six points each as seven Broncos made it onto the scoreboard. Hamilton and Riener both added five points each, Harchelroad and Bischoff three apiece and Strand a pair of points.

Outrebounding the Falcons 34-19, turnovers again proved to be costly for the Broncos, as HC had a 30-19 advantage.

Harchelroad led on the boards for the Broncos with eight rebounds. Bischoff and Riener both pulled down seven rebounds each.

Riener also led in steals and assists with four each.

Winning at home against SW

Redemption came in the form of a single point on Saturday, drawing an intense week of hardcore basketball action to close with a win at home.

The Broncos were finally able to hand Lauhead his 300th career victory on Saturday night at home, beating 5-5 Southwest by a single point, 51-50.

Taking a four-point 13-9 lead into the second quarter, the Broncos carried a 25-22 lead into halftime. After the half, Southwest was able to edge within two going into the third, 35-33, but the Broncos simply outlasted them, posting the slim victory.

“We needed that win,” Lauhead said. “And we earned it.”

Flaig led the scoring effort, as she and Southwest’s Allie McConville both posted a game-high 20 points.

Riener added 18 points and Bischoff posted 11. The only other Bronco scorer was Hamilton with a bucket for two points.

Although the Roughriders shot better from the field — 40 percent to the Broncos’ 27 percent — the difference came from the Broncos’ free throws. Hitting 18 of their 30 free throw shots for 60 percent, the Broncos won another close game by shooting hot from the line.

Harchelroad helped the Broncs edge the Roughriders on the board, 35-27, by pulling down nine rebounds. Bischoff and Riener both pulled down eight rebounds apiece.Flaig led in steals with five.

Jayvee play

Jayvee recaps from Hitchcock County and Southwest will be printed in next week’s Breeze issue.

Upcoming action

This week might prove to be a little easier for the Broncos with less games to play, but they’re going to have to fight tooth-and-nail to come out of it with a pair of wins.

Now 5-6, the Broncos will take on 5-6 Perkins County on Friday at home, then head to Oshkosh on Saturday for a matchup against the 1-6 Garden County Eagles. Check the lineup on page 6 for information on those games.

The following week, the Broncos will head to 7-3 Paxton on Thursday, then it’s the annual RPAC tournament frenzy the following week. Lauhead imagines his team will be among the lower seeds for the tourney so they’ll have to really fight for placement among their western opponents.

Information on RPAC will be included in next week’s issue of the Breeze.