Another hot start and the Broncs were up 10-1 with 3 minutes left in the first quarter against Hot Springs on December 22nd. Reese Larson dropped a 3 to make it 15-1 before the Lady Bison were able to score their first field goal of the game. The score was 17-3 when the quarter buzzer sounded. Regan Hatling put herself on the board before halftime marking the score 27-8 at half. Coming back from halftime, the Bison scored back-to-back baskets and another half way through the quarter to close the gap 27-14. Ward broke the Broncs’ ice with consecutive points to bring the score to 31-14. Score was 34-19 at the end of the third. The Bison continued to bring the score closer while the Broncs worked on new defenses and offenses to get an overall score of 40-27. Ward had 10 points followed by Nore with 9. Reese Larson had 4 rebounds for the Broncs.
After a few days off for Christmas, the Red Cloud Crusaders traveled to Belle Fourche and gave the Broncs their second loss of the season.
After each team scored twice during the first four possessions, the Crusaders jumped back-to-back passes for break away layups to bring the score up 9-4. The Broncs gathered themselves after a timeout and were able to hold with Red Cloud. Reaching a 2 point deficit at 2:45 left, the Broncs went bucket for bucket before taking a 4 point lead with 20 seconds left of quarter one. The Crusaders put in a bunny shot, but then fouled and sent Anika Main to the line. Main dropped in a free throw to keep the Bronc lead for the first quarter with a score of 23-20.
The first minute of quarter two went scoreless before Young swished a three pointer that Red Cloud mirrored on the other end. The teams went back and forth before another Red Cloud three pointer took the visitors to the lead 32-30 with 3:31 left in the quarter. Another score stalemate occurred until Red Cloud scored three more points with 45 seconds left in the half. They gathered another two points before Belle Fourche called a timeout. The score going into the half favored Red Cloud 37-30.
The Lady Crusaders jumped out with 7 quick points in the second half forcing Coach Burr to call an early timeout to slow their momentum. Young put in a free throw to open the Bronc Basket on the second half. Red Cloud answered with a three pointer and Ward hit a jumper in consecutive plays. The score was 33-47 still heavily favoring Red Cloud halfway through the third quarter. The Crusaders made a layup and Nore dropped in two bonus free throws adding two points to each team’s score with 2 minutes left of the third quarter. The Crusaders put in another two points with 30 seconds left. The quarter finished off with a score of 51-36, Red Cloud.
Ward assisted Young to score the first points of the fourth quarter. Young scored two free throws 2 minutes later and Nore drove to the hoop for two bringing the score to 51-42. Red Cloud didn’t score until 3:35 left in the quarter with a pair of free throws bringing the score difference back to 11. Another scoreless three minutes passed before Red Cloud scored back-to-back. Nore dropped in a deep three pointer at the buzzer but it wasn’t enough. The Lady Crusaders came away with the win 57-45. Three Broncs were in double digits with Young, Nore, and Ward scoring 15, 11, and 10 points respectively.
Broncs vs STM
Young scored 5 points in the first 5 minutes of the game down at St Thomas More, giving the Broncs an 8-4 advantage to start out the game. The Cavaliers scored four sequential points to tie 8-8 with 1:40 left in quarter one. Ward took back-to-back steals to the hoop for four more points to take back the lead. Main grabbed a steal, and tossed it to Young who was fouled on the shot. She dropped in one of her free throws to move the score to 13-8 to finish quarter one. Belle Fourche played tough defense for the first three minutes of the second quarter, preventing any points for their conference rivals and scoring 5 more of their own points. Down 17-8, the Cavaliers finally opened the bucket back up and scored 4 unanswered points. Larson dropped a three in an out of bounds play to bring the Bronc advantage back to 12-20.
The score remained for the last 4 minutes of the half, sending the Broncs into halftime with an 8 point lead. The Cavaliers opened the third quarter with a three pointer, but Young put in a baseline jumper for the Broncs for opening points in the half. Nowowiejski gathered an offensive rebound and handed it to Nore for an old fashioned three point play to take the Bronc lead to 25-17. STM gathered back-to-back buckets to bring themselves the closest they had been since the first quarter at 25-21. The Broncs called a timeout at 3:58 to reset. Getting outscored the next few minutes, another Belle Fourche timeout was taken at 1:15 with a score of 27-25 favoring the Broncs.
The teams played a high-paced game for the last minute of the third quarter and the Cavaliers took their first lead of the game to go into quarter four, 30-29. More speed ball took place for the first couple minutes of the fourth, seeing the Cavaliers keeping a hold of their one point lead 36- 35. The score got back within one point for the Broncs at 38-37 when Ward hit Nowowiejski for a layup with 3 minutes left in the game. Neither team scored until 1:30 left when the Cavaliers tossed one up to take the margin of lead further, 40- 37.
Young got an offensive free throw rebound and was fouled on the put-back. She was able to put in the first and assisted the second one right off the glass to her teammate Ward for another offensive rebound in which she was fouled putting back up. Ward made the first free throw to bring the Broncs back within one. The Cavaliers made one free throw in the final minute to bring it to a two point game. Despite valiant effort from the Belle Fourche team, they were unable to secure another basket, losing the game 41-39. Ward had 21 points followed by Young with 11.
The Broncs go on the road before matching up with Bowman, ND on the 20th with C games starting at 10am.
They will then host New Underwood on the 23rd with JV starting at 5:00.
