Lady Longhorns looking to end losing streak

After compiling a 9-4 win-loss record, the Kimball High girl's basketball team has lost five straight contests and is looking to end that slide this week in WTC Tournament play.

The Lady Longhorns lost at Mitchell on a Tuesday evening trip, and then suffered a 47-42 loss at Sutherland on Friday night, and a 53-42 loss at home Saturday night to North Platte St Pats, leaving them at 9-9 on the year.

The Lady Longhorns came up short in a Tuesday night contest at Mitchell this past week losing 57-48 to the Class C-l state ranked Lady Tigers. The hosting Mitchell club led at every quarter break after jumping out to a 7-0 lead using an up tempo, fast break offense to their advantage. It helped that their shots were falling. Kimball did a good job early getting the ball inside to Danika Daum who also went outside in the final stage of the contest to hit a pair of treys as the final period ran out. Daum led all scorers with 21 points plus pulling 9 rebounds, 3 steals, 3 assists, and a blocked shot. Mitchell's big girl, senior Kady Lower, was quiet until the second half but when the chips were down, she came though with 10 3rd quarter points and 17 total with her inside play.

Along with Daum's play, Jessica Hanks wound up with 9 points and 7 rebounds. Myriah Tyan had 6 points, Alex Reader 4, Madison Biesecker 3 with her trey along with 5 rebounds, 2 steals and a team high 4 assists. Arica McCloud had 3 with a trey, and Kailey Dickerson 2.

Kimball was 15/36 on 2 point field goals, 5/19 on 3 pointers, 3/6 at the foul line, had 12 offensive and 15 defensive rebounds, 6 steals, 11 assists, 1 block, 10 turnovers, and 18 fouls.

Mitchell was 16/35 on 2 point field goals, 4/11 on 3 pointers, and 13/22 at the line along with 24 rebounds and only 9 fouls. Along with Lower's 17 points, Aspen Reifschneider had a team high 19. McKenna Zulkoski 8, Jori Peters 7, and Celeste Cardona 6.

The difference in the game was at the foul line plus Mitchell's overall quickness. In their two meetings so far this season Mitchell has prevailed both times winning 43-39 in early January on the Kimball court. The Lady Tigers are ranked number 10 this week in the state class C-l rankings.

Score by quarter

Mitchell 19 10 14 14 - 57

Kimball 12 15 11 10 - 48

The game at Sutherland was a lot different than the one in the SPVA Tournament when the Lady Sailors won 43-35. You might recall Danika Daum scored Kimball's first 18 points in that game, but this time around was held to her season low of 2 points! Sutherland coach, Jason Gunderson, a former Kimball High grad, said, "I wasn't going to let her have another 18 or 19 point first quarter this time even if I had to triple team her."

With Sutherland working to shut down the inside game, Kimball was putting it up from outside and ended up with 9 treys and they were battling hard for the win. With :58 seconds left in the game Jessica Hanks hit a trey to close to 41-40, and Arica McCloud nailed a 16 footer with :31 seconds remaining to tie the game at 42-42. Sutherland made 5 of 6 free throw attempts in the closing seconds for the win with outstanding senior point guard Kaley Stokey stealing back to back in-bound passes from Kimball and converting all 5 of the free throws for the win. Stokey ended up with 19 points for game scoring honors with 10 points in the fourth period and 8/10 at the line.

A solid game for Jessica Hanks who led Kimball with 11 points going 3/5 on 3 point attempts and charted 6 rebounds. Alex Reader finished with 10 points with 1 trey and a team high 5 assists. Madison Biesecker had 9 points with 3 treys, Kailey Dickerson 6 with 2 treys and 3 steals, Arica McCloud 4, and Daum with 2 plus 6 rebounds.

Kimball was 7/10 at the line, 4/20 on 2 point field goals, 9/28 on 3 pointers, had 5 offensive and 15 defensive rebounds, 9 steals, 9 assists, 1 block, 17 fouls, and 17 turnovers.

Sutherland was 11/37 on 2 point field goals, 3/11 on 3 pointers, 16/25 at the foul line, had 8 fouls and 28 rebounds. A big difference in the foul department and the game was won at the foul line.

Commenting on the win after the game, coach Gunderson said, "We are certainly going to miss Kaley next year" referring to the play of Stokey, the talented senior point guard.

Kimball coach Chauncey Pedersen said, "At least we shot better tonight. We just need to finish out. We are letting too many of these close games get away from us at the end."

Score by quarter

Sutherland 10 11 7 19 - 47

Kimball 7 7 10 18 - 42

Another tough test for the Kimball ladies Saturday night as they hosted the SPVA Tournament champions, North Platte St. Pats. The Lady Irish are led by a very talented senior point guard, Anna O'Malley, who has already signed with a college in Missouri to run cross country and play basketball. At 5'8" she has all the tools and can drive inside, dish off, hit the long shots, and play good defense. She led the Irish to the win with 26 points and hit 4 treys.

Kimball played hard and gave great effort, and actually had a 16-12 first quarter lead with Daum scoring 8 points in that time frame. At half time St. Pats had edged ahead 23-22, and kept increasing their margin in the second half as Madison Biesecker and Jessica Hanks both found themselves in foul trouble and had to spend some time on the bench. Kimball's last lead in the contest came early in the 3rd period when Daum scored twice on inside moves to go up 26-25.

Daum led Kimball scoring with 17 and pulled 6 rebounds. Alex Reader had a good outing with 11 points including 3 treys, had 6 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists Hanks finished with 5 points with a trey, Dickerson 4 points, Biesecker 3, and McCloud 2 along with 5 rebounds.

As a team, Kimball shot 12/21 at the foul line, 9/37 on 2 point field goals, 4/23 on 3 point attempts, had 15 defensive and 17 offensive rebounds, 11 steals, and 7 assists, 21 fouls, and 14 turnovers.

St. Pats had 36 rebounds, 18 fouls, was 7/18 at the line, 6/20 on 3 pointers and 14/31 on 2 point field goals.

Kimball moves into Western Trails Conference Tournament play this week and as the number 4 seed will host number 5 seed Bridgeport tonight (Thursday) for a 6 p.m. tip off. The winner will advance into semifinal play Friday where they will go up against number 1 seed Mitchell who had a first round bye with game time at 2 p.m. The Kimball-Bridgeport loser is out.

Score by quarter

Kimball 16 6 11 9 - 42

St. Pats 12 11 17 13 - 53