Longhorns fall to Hershey, Bayard

Free throw shooting can win you ball games, and it can also result in losing ball games. Poor performance at the foul line cost the Kimball boys Friday night and free throw shooting also played a part in a loss on Saturday night for the Horns.

The Longhorns came up short Friday night in a 44-41 loss to visiting Hershey, and on Saturday they fell to Bayard 64-56, leaving them with a record of 3-3 going into the Christmas break. After winning their first three contests they have now suffered three consecutive losses.

Kimball got out to a fast start Friday night against Hershey with Jon Withrow nailing a trey to open scoring, Colton Stull driving the lane to go up 5-0, and Angel Flores made it an 8-2 margin with his trey but the visiting Panthers nailed a trey of their own at the buzzer to lead 13-12 at the quarter break, and they would lead at every quarter break in what was a close contest all the way,

Hershey had a size advantage and losing Michael Ferguson to fouls with 3:03 left in the game hurt the home town cause. While the winners went 8/9 at the foul line, Kimball was a weak 3/13 for 23%! In fact, the Horns shot poorly in all categories going 10/39 on 2 point field goals for just over 25%, and were actually better from 3 point land than any of the other categories making 6/16 for 37.5%. The local crew was also out rebounded 31 to 21, but held their turnovers to just 8 and their fouls to 12. They also had 9 steals, 8 assists and 1 blocked shot.

Ethan Land was Kimball's only player in double figure scoring with 10 going 4 for 5 from the field and 2 for 3 on 3 point attempts. Ferguson had 8 points along with 6 rebounds, 2 steals, an assist and a block. Tyler Magninie had 7 points and his second trey on the night gave the Horns a 36-35 lead late in the fourth period. Colton stull had 6 points and was 2/2 at the line, plus 3 steals and 2 assists. Angel Flores and Jonathon Withrow both had a trey and both tallied 5 points.

Hershey shot 88.8% at the line with only 1 miss in 9 attempts, and were 42% from the field going 17/40 including 2/9 on 3 point tries. They were led in scoring by Josh Margritz with 13 and Jason Davis with 11.

Score by quarter

Kimball 12 7 8 14 - 41

Hershey 13 9 9 13 - 44

Bayard has a tall starting lineup including 6'7" and 6'5" inside people and it took a toll on the Horns but it was the outside shooting of 5'9" Phil Schuller that put the Tigers up early as he nailed 3 treys in the opening period and had 11 points by the quarter break to give Bayard a 21-11 lead at the end of the opening period. To the credit of the Kimball coaching staff and the players, Kimball battled back to close to within 28-27 on back to back 3 pointers by Tyler Magninie and trailed 39-33 at half time.

In the third quarter Kimball scored the first 6 points with Michael Ferguson's steal and break-away slam dunk bringing a roar from the Kimball fans as he tied the game at 39-39. Bayard however scored the final 9 points of the period to lead 48-39 going into the final quarter of play. There is no quit in this Kimball team and they battled hard to the horn, out scoring Bayard 17-16 in the final period, but came up 8 points shy. Once again the difference came at the foul line as the winners were 10/14 at the charity stripe while Kimball was 0 of 3. Bayard had 11 fouls and Kimball 17. Only 7 turnovers for the Horns, with 12 steals and 14 assists. They shot 22/47 on 2 point field goal attempts and 4/24 on 3 point tries.

A good night for Ferguson as he led Kimball with 16 points on 8/12 shooting, had 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists. Tyler Magninie had 14 points with 2 treys, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals. Ethan Land finished with 12 points, Jon Withrow with 5 and had a trey, Enrique Cajero 4, Trent Rutledge 3 with his trey, Angel Flores 2. Colton Stull never scored but led the team in assists with 5 and had 3 steals.

Bayard pulled 33 rebounds with Kimball charted with 27, were 10/14 at the line, 18/30 on 2 point field goals and 6/13 on 3 point tries. They were led in scoring by Schuller with 16, Justin Baird 14, Bryce Hargens 10, Ethan Marker 9, and Chandler Cox 9.

Kimball is idle now until January 8 when they host Class B Sidney on a Thursday night, host a tough Mitchell club on the following night, a Friday, and then go to Chase County on Saturday, January 10, to complete a three game weekend. They come right back to host Potter-Dix on Tuesday, January 13!

Score by quarter

Kimball 11 22 6 17 - 56

Bayard 21 18 9 16 - 54