Kimball Girls Cruise Past Morrill

Kimball looked like a different team on Saturday, at least compared to the night before--and Taylor Wismer knew why.

“Once our shots start falling we get pumped,” she said.

In Friday night’s win over Pine Bluffs, the Longhorns hit on only 17 percent of their shots from the field. Saturday at Morrill, it was a different story: a precise 20 of 29 from inside the arc, a 64-31 road win and a 6-1 start to the season.

“It has been a few years since we were 6-1,” noted head coach Ken Smith.

The contest was in doubt for just a few minutes before the Longhorns began to wear down their opponents. Shelby Vogel and Darbi Klinkhammer accounted for the early scoring and Wismer converted a Klinkhammer skip pass into three points, handing Kimball a 9-4 lead.

But the Lions’ Brittany Zwiebel peeled out of the lane and responded with two. It was the last time Morrill caught sight of the Longhorns as moments later Vogel flashed through the backdoor. Klinkhammer whipped a guided missile pass that found her in stride and Kimball led 11-6.

“Shelby is so athletic--she makes things happen,” Smith said.

Vogel scored 6 of her 10 points in the fast paced opening period. Still, she only shrugged at the backdoor cut and quick lay up.

“It’s just reading the defense and their weaknesses,” she explained.

The second and third periods really amounted to an extended 42-12 Kimball run. Klinkhammer, Wismer, Tabitha Unzicker (from a Klinkhammer assist) and Jessica Hanks all scored before Morrill’s Dylainee Peacock broke the spell by notching 1 of 2 from the line. The Longhorns pieced together 7 more points--Hanks, Klinkhammer and Wismer doing the honors--ahead of Morrill’s next response, an acrobatic baseline drive by Zwiebel.

Kelly Green and Amber Kilgore scored from Klinkhammer assists before the Lions managed to click the scoreboard again.

Kimball rolled out to a 38-15 lead at the break, but they were not finished.

Out of the locker room, Klinkhammer found a streaking Vogel with a baseball pass. Unzicker followed with a short jumper off the glass and Klinkhammer again fired a long distance strike to Vogel to convert on another fast break.

“My job is to run the floor,” Vogel said.

Zwiebel tried to keep things respectable for the home side. But Hanks negated her effort with a measured three and Green took a baseline pass from Klinkhammer to the hole.

Klinkhammer ended the night with 10 assists. And, as Smith pointed out, “those were big time assists.”

By the time Brooke Hager scored to close out the third quarter, Kimball had outdistanced the Lions, 58-20.

“It feels really good,” Unzicker said of the win and 6-1 start. “But there’s still room for improvement.”

The Longhorns face stiffer opposition this weekend, as they travel to Bridgeport and host Class B rival Sidney.

“We just need to keep working,” Smith pointed out.