Lady Longhorns' season ends with sub-district loss

The season came to an end for the Kimball High girls' basketball team following a 47-20 loss to Dundy County in the championship game of the C2-12 sub-district tournament this past Thursday night at Sidney. Kimball had won out 33-21 over Bridgeport in their semi-final game and had a hard time getting their offense rolling either night as they wrapped up a winning season of 13 wins and 11 losses.

In the semi final win over Bridgeport, Kimball jumped out to a 13-5 lead at the end of the first quarter thanks to 5 points from Jessica Hanks and 4 from Shelby Vogel, and led 18-9 at half time, and 27-14 after three periods. Danika Daum was Kimball's lone player in double figures scoring 10 on 4/7 shooting from the field and 2/4 at the foul line. She also charted 4 rebounds and 2 steals. Shelby Vogel had 8 points and pounded the boards for 13 rebounds, plus 4 steals and a block. Hanks had 6 points with 7 rebounds and nailed a trey. Kelly Green also had a trey and scored 5 points. Arica McCloud had 2 points as did Brooke Hager who also led the team in steals with 4.

In team stats, Kimball was 5/9 at the line, 13/48 from the field going 2/15 on 3 point attempts, had 31 rebounds with 11 offensive, 15 steals, 4 assists, and 1 blocked shot.

Bridgeport shot 9/16 at the line, were 6/34 from the field and 0/2 on 3 pointers, had 26 rebounds, and 8 fouls compared to 14 for Kimball. Kimball also charted 20 turnovers.

Kimball 13 05 09 06 -- 33

Bridgeport 05 04 05 07 -- 21

A "Cold Night" shooting doesn't adequately describe the Lady Longhorn's final game as they were 5/52 from the field, less than 10%, and only 0/12 on 3 point attempts along with their 4/40 on 2 point shots. Not a lot better at the foul line where they were 10/21. Kimball did win the battle of the boards with 31 rebounds to 27 for the winners. They had 9 steals, 2 assists, 24 turnovers, and 18 fouls.

The Kimball ladies had a fairly good start, going 6/6 at the line, and trailed 14-8 at the quarter break. Dundy County, a talented ball club that beat Kimball 63-46 back in early December, was in control at all times, and went to their bench early and often with 11 players scoring. They were 8/18 at the line, 18/49 from the field going 3/11 on 3 pointers, and had 17 fouls.

Once again Daum was high for Kimball with 10 points going 6/10 at the line and ended up with 8 rebounds. Vogel had 4 points along with 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Laura Flores had 3 points with 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Hanks had 2 points and Green 1. Arica McCloud did not score but charted 7 rebounds.

Coach Chauncey Pedersen said "I felt we played pretty good defense in the Bridgeport game and did what we needed to do to get the win. I didn't think we played very good offensively either night and shot the ball terrible against Dundy County. We were slow getting our shots off and had several blocked. Our turnovers and fouls hurt us some too".

Kimball will graduate 5 seniors off this year's squad and will lack in depth next year according to Pedersen, but they will return top scorer and rebounder Danika Daum who just completed her sophomore season. Junior starter Jessica Hanks will also return, but coach Pedersen will have to search out three new starters come next year. We will take a look back at the past season in next week's sports as some players from this year's team could move into the top ten categories of the various school records.

Dundy County 14 12 11 10 -- 47

Kimball 08 05 06 01 -- 20