Kimball boys now 4-0 with wins over Perkins County and Morrill

The Kimball High boys remain undefeated on the young season running their record to 4-0 with wins over Perkins County and Morrill over the weekend. The Horns struggled on the road at Grant Friday night finally winning out 55-46 over the Perkins County Plainsmen, but had an easy run-a-way victory over Morrill at home Saturday night, 62-17. Coach Bruce Tjosvold was not happy with the play of his young men in the Friday night win, but said "We played a lot better on Saturday".

Jake Reader got Kimball off to a good start at Grant scoring the first two baskets of the contest on a driving layin and a rebound put-back and hit all three of his first quarter attempts, but the hosts stayed close to trail 12-8 at the end of the first period of play. The Horns had trouble getting their shots to fall and at half time, they held on to a narrow 24-23 lead, and actually fell behind 15-14 midway through the quarter. Senior Mike Daum picked up his pace with 9 second quarter points and had 11 at intermission, but the plainsmen tallied the last three baskets before the half time break.

Kimball's two mainstays, Daum and Reader, were both in foul trouble in the third period, and Perkins County was matching the Horns basket for basket, and Kimball held a meager 38-35 margin going into the final quarter. Reader picked up his fifth foul and was done for the night, with less than a minute gone from the clock to begin the fourth period. Daum went inside and Ethan Land found him with an assist, followed by an assist from Jonathon Withrow to the big 6'9" senior, and when Land canned a trey, suddenly Kimball had a 10 point lead and a bit of breathing room. Land, a sophomore, hit another trey, and Withrow scored on a steal, and Kimball secured the victory with some late minute foul shooting.

Not a pretty win, but a win! It wasn't a case of the Horns having a lot of fouls as they registered only 13, but Reader with his 5 and Daum with 4, accounted for 9 between them. A positive stat showed the Horns with only 7 turnovers. As mentioned, they didn't shoot the ball well from the field going 18/42 on two point attempts and 4/11 on three pointers. At the foul line they were 7/12. They pulled only 20 rebounds despite having the size advantage with Grant charting 31 boards. Kimball had 11 steals, 12 assists, and 4 blocks.

Individual stats show Daum with 24 points to top all scorers, hitting on 9/19 on two pointers, 1/5 three pointers, 3/3 at the line, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals. Reader, with his limited play, ended up with 8 points on 4/8 shooting, had 3 boards, 3 steals and 1 assist. Land with his two treys and 6 points, Colton Stull had 6 points, along with 4 rebounds, and 4 assists, Withrow had 4 points and a team high 5 assists, Angel Flores 3 points with one trey, Michael Ferguson 3 points, 3 rebounds, a steal and an assist, and Henry Heeg 1 point. .

Perkins County shot 17/39 from two point range, 4/13 on three pointers, and 0/5 at the foul line. They had good balanced scoring with Matt Sestak high with 13, Derek Sis 8, Tim Johnson 7, Christian White 7, Zak Kurkowski 6, and Bailey Schrotberger 5.

The Morrill Lions are in a down year and were no match for the hosting Kimball squad in a game where coach Tjosvold was kind, to say the least,as he went to his bench early and cleared tis bench using everyone he had suited and everyone getting good minutes of court time.

It was 24-0 at the quarter break and Kimball was on top 35-0 before Morrill scored a free throw with 2:24 left in the second quarter. At half time it was 44-4 and the second half started with a running clock, thanks to the new rule this year of a running clock in the second half when one team has a 40 point lead over the other team. The running clock rule continued through out the second half play.

Jake Reader had a solid night leading Kimball with 15 points on 7/8 shooting from the field and 1/2 at the line. Mike Daum finished with 10 points on 3/10 shooting from the field with 1 trey and was 3/4 at the line. He also had 6 rebounds, 5 blocks, 4 steals, and 2 assists. Michael Ferguson with 8 points, 4 rebounds and 5 steals. Angel Flores with 8 on 4/5 shooting, Jonathon Withrow with 6 plus 3 steals and 2 assists, Henry Heeg 5, Ethan Land 3, Johnathon Kurth 3, Colton stull 2, and Enrique Cajero 2.

In team stats Kimball again held their turnovers to just 10, had 10 fouls, were 8/12 at the line, 24/45 on two point fielders, 2/9 on three pointers, had 26 rebounds, 18 steals, 7 assists, and 6 blocks. Morrill had 19. rebounds, were 7/35 on two pointers, 0/5 on three pointers, 3/6 at the line and had 11 fouls. Jorge Lara was high for Morrill with 7.

Kimball will find a tough weekend this week with Hershey coming to town Friday night for games beginning at 3:30 and Saturday they travel to Bayard for games beginning at 2 p.m. The Kimball teams will then take a Holiday break until January 9 when they return to the hardwoods at Sidney.