RITZVILLE – Down by seven points to Davenport on their home floor, the Lind-Ritzville/Sprague Broncos were unable to mount a comeback against the 14-1 Gorillas, falling 60-48 on Saturday night.

“You’ve got to respect what they have, and at the end of the day they just made more plays than we did,” Lind-Ritzville/Sprague senior Chase Galbreath said. “We’re definitely going to see them again down the line, and we just have to know what we’re doing next time.”

Galbreath’s coach said he’d expected strong competition from the Gorillas.

“Knocking them out of districts last year, I thought they might come pretty fired up and want some revenge,” LRS Head Coach Dustan Arlt said. “First minute we were alright, then after that we were a little low and didn’t score much.”

Broncos sophomore Jayce Kelly scored the opening basket for the home team, but Davenport quickly followed with a 14-point run in the first quarter to jump out to a big lead. Despite being down by double digits early, the Broncos fought back to cut into the Gorilla lead and found themselves down 29-23 after a three-pointer by senior Hunter Dinkins.

“I was really pleased with the way we competed after a slow start,” Arlt said. “Battling back, cutting it within a possession a couple times, then (Davenport) pulled away a little bit. Our kids competed and overcame that tiredness and fatigue.”

Galbreath credited the home crowd for helping the Broncos get back in the game.

“It definitely drains some energy, but we were able to get it back,” Galbreath said. “The crowd was great tonight, so that definitely helped.”

Davenport closed out the first half strong, taking advantage of a missed LRS layup on a fast break with under a minute remaining.

“Right before halftime we missed a lay-in to cut it to four and then they hit a three right before the buzzer, and all of a sudden it’s a nine-point game,” Arlt said.

The Broncos once again went on another run, this time cutting the deficit to only two points to go down 32-30 early in the third quarter. It was all Davenport from there, who closed out the third quarter by outscoring the Broncos 11-4.

Junior guard Brock Kinch hit two three-pointers to slow the bleeding in the third quarter, one of many LRS role players to step up on Saturday night.

“We had more guys chipping in, it wasn’t just our top two or three scorers,” Arlt said. “We need that big time to compete with some of these good teams in our league.”

Davenport answered again in the fourth quarter, beginning with an 8-0 run in the first two minutes before running away with a 60-48 win.

With the loss, the Broncos fall to 8-5 on the year with a chance to get back in the win column against Reardan on Tuesday. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.

Ian Bivona may be reached at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

Box Score

Broncos: 9-14-13-12: 48

Gorillas:18-14-11-17: 60