Lady Longhorns go on scoring spree, win 2 games

The Kimball High Lady Longhorn basketball team went on a scoring spree this past weekend resulting in two big wins to post on their schedule leaving them at 3-1 on the young season. On the home court Friday night they won over visiting Perkins County 79-45, and came right back on the road to Morrill Saturday evening to win 77-65.

With Jessica Hanks leading the way the Kimball girls got off to a quick start Friday night against the Lady plainsmen scoring 9 of her 16 points on the night in the opening quarter. Hitting all 4 of her shot attempts, including 1 trey. Hanks put on a shooting demonstration to get Kimball out front 20-10 at the quarter break. In the second quarter freshman Alex Reader nailed both of her 3 point tries and fed Danika Daum inside with 4 assists as Daum tallied 12 points by half time boosting Kimball to a 38-22 half time margin. In the third period the Kimball ladies dished out 6 more assists, Kailey Dickerson and Myriah Tyan both hit a pair of baskets, Reader hit her third consecutive trey, and Kimball held a 56-38 lead entering the fourth quarter of play.

Reader hit 2 more treys in the fourth, and 5 in a row without missing and Kimball outscored the visitors 23-7 in the final stanza to win by a 34 point margin. It was a solid night for Kimball with everyone performing at a high level. Daum led Kimball with 23 points on 10/24 shooting from the field and 2/2 at the line. She also pulled a double on the boards with 12 rebounds, had 2 blocks, 2 steals and an assist. Jessica Hanks was strong the entire contest and ended with 16 points along with 10 rebounds. Reader hit 5 of her 6 trey attempts and wound up with 15 points and a team high 6 assists as she fed Daum inside. Madison Biesecker had 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 steals. Myriah Tyan hit 4 of 6 shots for 8 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. Arica McCloud had 5 points, 6 rebounds and 3 steals, Kailey Dickerson 4 points plus 5 assists, and Alexis Gawith led with 3 steals.

Kimball shot well going 4/5 at the line, had 12 fouls, 15 turnovers, were 27/55 on 2 point field goals, 7/21 on 3 pointers, had 22 offensive and 29 defensive rebounds, 10 steals, 2 blocked shots and an amazing 20 assists showing they were looking for the open player. Perkins County had 8 fouls, 28 rebounds, were 6/9 at the line, 12/51 on 2 point FG, and 5/17 on treys. They were led in scoring by Kaitlynn Heinemann with 14, Mariah Curtis with 12, and Kendra Hoffert with 11.

Score by quarter

Kimball 20 18 18 23 - 79

Perkins 10 12 15 7 - 45

Kimball had the exact same start at Morrill as they did against Perkins County leading 20-10 at the quarter break and were once again feeding the ball inside to Daum who tallied 11 of her game high 24 points in the opening period. The two clubs battled even in the second quarter to leave Kimball on top 36-26 at half time. Alex Reader had 3 fouls at intermission and had to serve some bench time, eventually fouling out with 4:15 left in the game.

Morrill has one of the area's top players in sophomore Jessica Harvey and the Kimball coaching staff came up with a plan to try and hold her down by playing her one on one at all times. Kimball sophomore, Jannel Fiehtner did that job a good share of the night and what a job she did. She lived in Miss Harvey's face and helped hold her to 20 points, including 2 treys and perfect 8 for 8 at the line. Jannel also contributed by scoring 9 points including a pair of treys.

In the third period Dickerson scored 5, and Biesecker 7, and Tyan played strong. Morrill fought back hard and out scored Kimball 24-21 in the final period but the Lady Longhorns got the win in the high scoring affair.

Daum got her 24 points on 10/27 shooting along with 4/4 at the line, had 16 rebounds, 3 steals and a block. Biesecker had 20 points going 8/9 at the line, had 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 4 assists. Dickerson with 12 points on 5/7 shooting from the field and 2/2 on treys and had 3 assists. Fiehtner with 9 going 2/2 on treys, Tyan 6 points with 4 rebounds and 2 assists, Hanks with 4 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, 1 block and 1 assist. McCloud had 2 points.

In team stats, Kimball shot 20/26 from the foul line, were 21/54 on 2 point field goals, 5/15 on 3 pointers, had 14 offensive and 22 defensive rebounds, 14 steals, 2 blocks and 15 assists, 25 fouls and 18 turnovers.

Morrill was charted with 30 rebounds, had 15 fouls, was 23/34 on free throws, 18/51 on 2 point FG, and 2/12 on 3 point FG. Scoring for Morrill were Harvey with 20, Kaitlyn Margheim 14, Leanne Sherrod 10, Shalyn Lackey 10, Bailee Steiner 8, and Stafani Tarin 4.

Score by quarter

Kimball 20 16 20 21 - 77

Morrill 10 16 15 24 - 65

Coach Tiffany Johnson was elated with the play of her girls over the weekend and happy to add two wins to the early schedule as she awaits the return of head coach Chauncey Pedersen who is still recovering from recent neck surgery.

"I think after the game that I should have done such and such that Chauncey would have probably caught. He should be back soon but happy we got the two wins this weekend, and proud of the way the girls performed," she said.

Another tough weekend corning up with both games at Kimball. Hershey comes to town Friday night for games beginning at 3:30 for both JV teams, girls varsity at 5 and boy's at 6:30. Saturday Bayard will be at Kimball with JV game times at 2 p.m., girl's varsity 3:30 and boy's varsity at 5 p.m. This is the final action before the Christmas break, with action resuming on January 8 versus Sidney. The FFA will feed you fans Friday night with a Burrito feed and the Booster Club will do a Walking Taco Feed Saturday.