Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Kimball's Jannel Fiehtner, left, guards an opposing player during the season opening tournament. The Lady Longhorns finished 1-1 in the tournament and took third place.
Myriah Tyan drives to the basket for a shot during tournament play last weekend. The Lady Longhorns opened the season Friday with a loss to Dundy County-Stratton, before the rebounded to win Saturday against McPherson County.
The Kimball Lady Longhorns fell to a very good Dundy County-Stratton team 70-51 in first round play, but came back to win 51-13 over McPherson County to capture third place honors at the Kimball Tournament this past weekend. Dundy County went on to defeat Morrill 74-36 in the championship game after Morrill won over McPherson County 42-11 in first round play.
Dundy County-Stratton was a state qualifier a year ago and compiled a 23-3 overall record. After dropping from C-2 to D-l this year, they are a good bet to return to state tournament play again and make a run for top honors. It was a tough weekend for Kimball with head coach Chauncey Pedersen absent and in a Colorado hospital recuperating from neck surgery and starter Danika Daum waking up Friday morning with a high temperature and not feeling up to par.
Daum picked up 2 quick fouls in the Friday night contest but still managed to score first period points and along with Madison Biesecker's 5 points and a trey from Arica McCloud, Kimball trailed DCS 16-14 after one quarter of play. Thanks to an 11 point second quarter by Jessica Hanks, Kimball was still right in the thick of things trailing 34-28 at half time. Hanks continued her outstanding play in the third period on perfect 7 point shooting to keep the Lady Horns within striking distance trailing 47-39 to enter the final quarter of play. The eventual winners outscored Kimball 23-12 in the final quarter to secure the win.
An outstanding night for senior Jessica Hanks who led all scorers with 22 going 7/8 at the line and nailing 1 trey. She had a double-double with 12 rebounds! Despite not feeling 100% Daum ended with 17 points with 1 trey, along with 7 rebounds. Biesecker had 7 points and 5 rebounds, McCloud 3, Alex Reader 2. Myriah Tyan failed to score but pulled 6 rebounds and had 3 assists.
In team stats, Kimball had 20 turnovers, 22 fouls, were 12/19 at the foul line, 15/35 on 2 point field goals, 3/26 on 3 point tries, had 14 offensive and 23 defensive rebounds, 7 steals, and 9 assists. DCS had 20 fouls, 31 rebounds, were 16/27 at the line, 18/40 on 2 point field goals and 6/22 on 3 point fielders. They were led in scoring by FayeLee Sanford with 18, Nicole Kent with 15, Aubrey Frederick 13, and Kaylee Burke with 10.
Score by quarter
Kimball 14 14 11 12 - 51
Dundy 16 18 13 23 - 70
McPherson County lost to Morrill 42-11 in first round play to put them into the losers bracket game with Kimball while Dundy County-Stratton went on to win over Morrill in the title game. Kimball got off to a rather slow start taking a 9-4 first quarter lead, but picked up the pace in the second period outscoring the opponents 20-1 to take a 29-5 half time lead. They coasted home with the win in the second half.
Daum was high for Kimball with 18 points including a pair of treys and had 5 rebounds. Biesecker had 15 points with 6 rebound and 3 steals. Hanks attempted only 6 shots but tallied 7 points, Alex Reader had 3 along with 5 steals, Kailey Dickerson 3 points, McCloud 2 with 3 steals, Myriah Tyan 2 with 5 rebounds, and Alexis Gawith 1.
Kimball had 16 fouls, 11 turnovers, were 10/18 at the line, 16/59 from 2 point range, 3/18 from 3 point range, had 16 offensive and 16 defensive rebounds, 18 steals, 8 assists and 1 blocked shot. McPherson County had 12 fouls, were 2/12 at the line, 4/35 on 2 point field goals, 1/3 on 3 point fielders and had 35 rebounds.
Score by quarter
Kimball 9 20 13 9 - 51
McPherson 4 1 5 3 - 13
Coach Tiffany Johnson said, "We played 3 quarters of solid basketball on Friday night but the game got away from us in the fourth quarter. We played hard but Dundy County Stratton is a good ball club. Danika was not feeling the best but Jessica really stepped up and was a leader for us. The win Saturday boosted the girl's confidence and hopefully got us ready for this weekend."
Coach Johnson said she is not certain if head coach Pedersen will be back with the team or not by Friday when Perkins County comes to town. Game time Friday-night at Longhorn Gymnasium is 5:30 for the girl's varsity and Saturday night at Morrill is an early start time of 2:30 for the girl's varsity. JV games on Friday are 4 p.m. and 1 p.m. on Saturday.
