Coach believed in Broncos
Coming off a difficult 6-16 season in the Northeast A, there weren’t many who expected Lind-Ritzville to be playing on the last day of this year’s State B Tournament at the Spokane Arena.
“I did,” Broncos head coach Dwight Pflugrath said. “I think I was the only one.”
L-R (27-3) used a 17-3 third-quarter run to pull away from Wahkiakum (22-6) on its way to a 67-57 win and fourth place on Saturday.
Pflugrath knew he had an outside threat, junior Cameron Stevenson, and a tough post presence, 6-foot-2 Jake Kragt. L-R also had a group of role players fresh off a State B-11 football championship.
“I knew that we had some speed,” Pflugrath said. “We had a kid (Stevenson) that shot the ball pretty well from the outside for us all year, and we had others that could step up and with Kragt inside. That kid’s a horse. Those (opponents) don’t come through very often.”
Kragt had 14 points and seven rebounds, and Stevenson led all scorers with 17, but as it has been all year, the complementary players meant the difference between a win and a loss.
Senior forward Drew Phillips had eight points for the Broncos in the second quarter, bringing them back into a game they trailed 17-11 after one quarter. James Saetre, a 5-7 junior guard, also came up big in the first half, hitting two 3-pointers as L-R battled back to a two-point halftime advantage.
“Drew and James both really stepped up big today,” Pflugrath said. “They went through a hitter’s slump there for a while. That’s one of the real differences is we had those guys with fairly fresh legs. The last two days they really played well, and that got us over the top.”
During the Broncos’ big run, though, it was Stevenson, who averaged 16.3 a game in the regular season, but was only at 10.3 a game after the first three days of the tourney, and Kragt inside.
Ten seconds into the second half, senior guard Jake Phillips got loose underneath for a layup, followed by a Kragt bucket inside. On L-R’s next possession, Stevenson hit a 13-foot jumper, then grabbed a loose ball and scored to put the Broncos up 39-32.
Stevenson hit Kragt for a layup, then nailed a 3-pointer from the left wing for a 12-point lead. Senior point guard Andy Wellsandt split Wahkiakum’s zone to find Kragt for an easy two, and by the time Saetre hit a 15-foot jumper from the right wing, the Broncos led 48-32, and were on their way to the win.
“Earlier in the week, I was tired of missing all my shots,” Stevenson said. “So I thought I would start driving, and do something.”
Tanner Tramblie led the Mules, who finished seventh, with 16 points, shooting 5 of 9 from the 3-point line.
It’s been an interesting learning curve for the Broncos, who only began playing together after Lind and Ritzville combined in 2003. For example, Stevenson attends Lind High School, and Kragt attends Ritzville. Until 2003, the two were opponents.
“We would be a lot better if we had been playing with each other, we’ve always been playing against each other until two years ago,” Stevenson said. “But fourth place is good.”
Northwest Christian (26-4) picked up a third-place trophy with a 61-51 win over King’s West (24-4). Junior center Karl Richardson had 27 points, six rebounds and six steals to lead the Crusaders. Adam Shildmyer scored 23 for King’s West.
In the fifth-place game, defending champion Republic (28-3) defeated Neah Bay (20-8) 80-54 behind 25 points and eight assists from Zach Gianukakis and 21 points, 15 rebounds, nine assists and five steals from senior point guard Tyler Orestad. The eighth-place finish was NB’s first trophy since 1986.