Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Kimball's Jaden Withrow, right, battles a Mitchell player for positioning in last week's game.
The Kimball boys lost a heart breaker in first round play of the WTC Conference basketball tournament falling to Mitchell 43-40 in overtime. The Longhorns were the number 5 seed and had to travel to number 4 seed Mitchell for their Thursday night contest and it was a battle from start to finish.
Kimball got out to a 10-4 lead after one quarter of play with Jon Withrow hitting a pair of treys and Michael Ferguson getting a pair of 2 point field goals. At half time Kimball was still on top 21-17 and held a 1 point lead going into the fourth period. The Horns had a couple of good looks to score late in regulation but didn't get a couple of shots to fall sending the game into overtime with the score knotted at 40-40 at the end of regulation play. In overtime the Tigers scored the 3 points with Eberspecher doing the honors for the win.
With the loss, the Kimball boys were eliminated from tournament play while Mitchell advanced to semi final play at Cougar Palace in Scottsbluff.
Big night for senior Michael Ferguson who led Kimball with 21 points going 9/14 from the field and 3/5 at the foul line. He also pulled 8 rebounds and had a block before fouling out. Jonathon Withrow hit 3 of 6 3 point attempts for his 9 points and charted 3 rebounds and 3 steals. Angel Flores had 5 points with 1 trey and matched Ferguson with rebounds with 8. Tyler Magninie had 4 points, and Jaden Withrow 1.
As a team, Kimball was 16/56 from the field going 4/24 on 3 point attempts, 4/9 at the line, had 20 fouls, 13 offensive and 24 defensive rebounds, 14 steals and 9 assists. Barrios with 19 and Eberspecher with 17 led Mitchell scoring.
Score by quarter
Kimball 10 11 7 12 0 - 40
Mitchell 4 13 10 13 3 - 43
Mitchell met up with Hemingford, the number one seed, in the semi final game and lost 65-37 dropping them down to the consolation finals where they ended up third with a 49-40 win over Bayard.
In other first round play Bayard won over Morrill 67-34 and Bridgeport won over Gordon-Rushville 52-47. Bridgeport (54-47) won over Bayard 52-32 in semi final play and upset Hemingford 49-47 in the championship game to win the 2015 conference tournament title.
