Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Danika Daum charges at the hoop as the Longhorns battle tooth and nail to keep their lead over Scottsbluff.
Coach Chauncey Pedersen termed it "frustrating" as his Kimball High Lady Longhorns fell to visiting Scottsbluff 32-28 in their pre-season, Nebraska High School Hall of Fame exhibition game Monday night at the Kimball High gymnasium.
"It was frustrating to lead all the way and then lose it in the final minutes," said Pedersen. After a slow offensive showing in the opening period Kimball was leading 5-3 after the first quarter ended, and at half time they were on top 12-9 as neither team could find the basket. Kimball improved their lead to 25-20 after three quarters of play, but got outscored 12-3 in the final stanza to come up on the short end of the stick, losing 32-28.
Kimball still had a 28-27 lead with 2 minutes to play after Danika Daum fed Laura Flores for a basket inside, but the Lady Bearcats tied it at 28-28 with 1:38 to play, and then made a couple of field goals in the final minute to secure the win.
"We didn't shoot well, and we didn't finish it out" said coach Pedersen who was coaching his first game as the head guy at Kimball after assisting the past five years under retired coach Ken Smith. "Shooting 16% won't win you many ball games," Pedersen said. Kimball was 3 of 28 on two point shots for 10% and 4 of 15 on three point tries for 26%. They did shoot well at the foul line hitting 10 of 15 for 66.6%.
"We had some foul problems that hurt us some. We played hard and gave a good effort. Some of our player combinations worked fairly well. It was a good practice game for us, but we need to improve, and we will," Pedersen said.
In other team stats, Kimball had 9 offensive and 21 defensive rebounds, ,just 3 shy of the winners, had 10 steals, 4 assists and 1 blocked shot. Sophomore Danika Daum led Kimball in scoring with 14 hitting a pair of treys and going 6/7 at the line. She had an all around good first outing with 8 rebounds, 4 steals, an assist and a blocked shot. Senior Kelly Green nailed a pair of treys for her 6 points, Laura Flores had 4, Shelby Vogel 2 and Brooke Hager 2. Hager and Jessica Hanks both finished with 5 rebounds, and Madison Biesecker had 4.
Coach Pedersen had a starting five consisting of junior Jessica Hanks, seniors Kelly Green, Shelby Vogel, and Brooke Hager along with sophomore Danika Daum.
Scottsbluff was 11 of 49 from the field including 1 of 4 from three point range, 9 of 15 at the line. They had 8 girls score led by Chesney Walker with 9, and Aly Comacho with 8.
The Kimball girls will officially open the season this Friday evening at their own Kimball four team invitational facing Southeast in the 6 p.m. first round action.
