The Broadus basketball teams racked up the road miles over their last two games, traveling to Ekalaka on Thursday, and Melstone on Friday.

Both Ekalaka and Melstone feature really tough teams – the Melstone Boys and Girls are both undefeated on the season, and Ekalaka’s Boys are second in the conference, with their Girls team is 4th in conference.

Going into the weekend, the Broadus Girls sat at 6th out of 9 teams, and the Boys at 5th out of 8 teams. In other words, both teams had their work cut out for them on the road at Ekalaka and Melstone.

Boys

The Broadus Boys went to Ekalaka knowing they would need to stop Mick O’ Connor, who scored 20 points and brought down 13 rebounds against Broadus in the first matchup of the season. Unfortunately for Broadus, O’ Connor went all out on his home court, putting up 37 points and nabbing 16 rebounds.

“We couldn’t come up with an answer to Mick,” Broadus Head Coach Mike Richards said of the game during a Monday interview.

Besides trying to contain O’ Connor’s attack, Broadus had trouble with consistency, with a 33% field goal percentage and only shooting 4 for 10 on free throws, while working to contain Ekalaka’s high powered offense at the other end of the court. This recipe made for a Broadus loss, with a final score of Ekalaka 62, Broadus 46.

In the Melstone game, Richards noted than the Broncs “brought the attack” in the first quarter, quickly going up on the Hawks 23-6 by the end of the quarter. Richards made some adjustments to the team, and they were able to respond to beat Melstone in points in both the second and third quarters, but the hole they were in was too deep. Broadus would lose the game 58-74 to the still undefeated Melstone Broncs.

Johnny Richards led the Hawks in scoring against Ekalaka with 10 points. On Friday, Beau Kuhbacher led in scoring against Melstone with 18 points. Tayden Gee had 15 points and 11 rebounds against Melstone.

The losses put Broadus at 2-4 in conference and 5th place, with games at Wibaux on Friday, and hosting Custer/ Hysham on Saturday. In the previous Wibaux game, Broadus soundly trounced the Longhorns, but one of Wibaux’s star players, Tel Lunde, is expected to play this game. Lunde missed the first half of the season after an injury sustained during Wibaux’s second place state championship football run.

Custer/Hysham is expected to be a competitive game, with Varsity action beginning at 4 pm for the Girls, and 5:30 for the Boys. The JV games are still up in the air as to whether or not they will be played, but are still scheduled as of Monday.

The Broadus JV Boys beat Ekalaka’s JV 54-31, and fell 77-29 to Melstone’s JV.

Girls

A large number of turnovers and an 18% field goal percentage against Ekalaka sealed the Lady Hawks’ fate on the scoreboard, with an 14-66 final score. Head Coach Stanley noted that despite the lopsided score, the girls were beginning to play more cohesively as a team, though they need to work on their offense and turnovers going forward.

On Friday, Broadus played better on defense, winning the rebound game against Melstone. Unfortunately for Broadus, turnovers continued to plague the Lady Hawks, and Melstone’s Draya Wacker was able to capitalize with 7 steals against the Lady Hawks, as she put up 25 points in a 63-23 win over Broadus.

The Lady Hawks will face a tough 5-1 Wibaux team on Friday. The Custer/Hysham game on Saturday is expected to be competitive – Custer/ Hysham’s 2-4 record has been played against a number of soft teams, and Stanley hopes to improve the Lady Hawk record against the Lady Rebels.

The Girls JV played Ekalaka, coming close to a win with a final score of 44-46.

Here are the Broadus stats from the games:

https://www.powderriverexaminer.com/home/customer_files/stats/1.16_stats-1