Kimball girls scare state-ranked Hemingford

Kimball's Lady Longhorns took care of business in winning their first round sub-district tournament pairing with Bridgeport, coming out on top 47-33, and almost pulled the upset of the season in a 49-43 loss to top seed and state ranked Hemingford in the championship game.

In first round play, the number 2 seeded Kimball club opened up with 4 treys in the first quarter with Danika Daum hitting the first shot of the game from beyond the arc after taking a pass from Madison Biesecker who had 3 first quarter assists. Biesecker also contributed a trey and Alex Reader swished a pair of 3 pointers. Kimball led 13-8 at the quarter break and was on top 22-18 at half time with Daum already in double figures with 10 points. Myriah Tyan had a big second quarter with 3 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists.

Kimball scored the first 10 points of the second half with Kailey Dickerson driving for a lay in, Biesecker following with another lay in, and Jessica Hanks hitting back to back treys and the Lady Horns improved their lead to 36-26 going into the fourth quarter. Despite Bridgeport putting on a pressure defense that caused 21 second half turnovers, and 33 total, the Lady Horns got the job done to advance to the championship game with Hemingford.

Daum finished with a double-double scoring 16 points and pulling 13 rebounds. Biesecker had 8 points with 2 treys, had 5 rebounds, 5 steals, and 7 assists. Hanks also had 8 points with 2 treys, 4 rebounds and 3 steals. Reader had 6 with her 2 treys; Dickerson 4, Tyan 3 along with 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists. Arica McCloud had 2 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals.

In team stats, Kimball had the 33 turnovers, 13 fouls, shot 4/8 at the foul line, 11/30 on 2 point field goals, 7/19 on 3 pointers, had 9 offensive and 30 defensive rebounds, 18 steals, and 11 assists.

Bridgeport had 32 rebounds, 11 fouls, was 8/13 at the line, 11/54 on 2 point field goals and 1/11 on 3 point tries.

No one in double figures for the Lady Bulldogs with Megan Dudden high with 8. Cassidy Mitchell, Olga Aguilar, and Karina Garza all had 6.

Score by quarter

Kimball 13 9 14 11 - 47

Bridgeport 8 10 8 7 - 33

The Kimball girls had lost to the number 8 state ranked Lady Bobcats just a week earlier in their final regular season game by a score of 53-37, but coach Chauncey Pedersen had a solid game plan for the second meeting and it worked to perfection for three quarters as the Lady Horns played perhaps their best basketball of the season. It looked like the upset of the year was in the making as Kimball broke out to big leads of 10-6 at the quarter, 28-15 at half time, and 40-21 at the end of three quarters of play. With a 19 point lead to start the final period, the atmosphere was festive on the Kimball side of the gymnasium at Gering High.

Hemingford came out cold to start, hitting only 2 of 16 from the field and 1 of 7 at the line in the opening period. Kimball was 4 of 9 from the field and was getting the job done with only 6 turnovers but Reader and Tyan both had 2 early fouls. Hemingford continued to struggle with their shooting while Kimball played perhaps their best quarter of basketball of the season in the second quarter as they made pin point passes, drove to the basket, pulled 14 rebounds, had only 2 turnovers, and played good defense. They outscored the highly touted Lady Cats 18-9. It was an awesome first half!

To start the second half, Biesecker made two drives for baskets and Dickerson nailed a 17 footer. When McCloud made a shot from inside Kimball took a 20 point lead at 37-17. McCloud had a rebound put-back at the end of the period to maintain a 19 point lead with just 8 minutes remaining.

Wish for the sake of you Kimball fans we could end the story here. The fourth period began with Hemingford scoring but Daum came right back with a drive to the basket to keep that 19 point lead. That was the last Kimball score until Daum sank a free throw with :17 seconds left. Hemingford would score 23 unanswered points to go up 46-42 before Daum hit the lone gift shot, and would outscore Kimball 28 to 3 in the final quarter of play! Unbelievable is the best description I can come up with.

All the good things Kimball was doing for three quarters, they stopped doing. They had 11 turnovers in the fourth period alone, The shots quit falling. They were out rebounded. They stopped driving, and Hemingford started hitting their shots, and the calls didn't go the Longhorns' way at the end. Kimball went into panic mode and coach Pedersen called multiple time outs to try and settle his club down but the Lady Bobcats showed why they are state ranked as they took control with poise, especially from sophomore point guard Brooke Turek who scored 14 of her game high 25 points in that fourth quarter spurt.

Kimball got points and good play from all 7 of their rotation with Daum high with 12 points with 1 trey and also led in rebounds with 16 for another double-double along with 3 steals and 2 assists. Biesecker had 7 points with 8 rebounds, Dickerson 7 points on 3/6 shooting, McCloud 6 points and 7 rebounds, Hanks 5 points, Reader and Tyan 3 each.

In team stats, too many turnovers with 26, too many fouls with 22, had 13 offensive and 25 defensive rebounds for 38 total, 7 steals, 6 assists, was 6/12 at the foul line, 14/40 on 2 point field goals, 3/12 on 3 pointers.

Hemingford had 43 rebounds, 17 fouls, was 13/61 on 2 point field goals, 3/16 on 3 pointers, and 14/29 at the foul line. Along with Turek's 25 points, Faith Rohrbouck hit double figures with 10.

Kimball ended their season with a win-loss record of 11-13 and will graduate just two seniors including Alexis Gawith and starter Jessica Hanks. This year's team saw some movement into the top five in school records and we will bring you a re-cap of all the past season in an upcoming edition of Observer sports. Hemingford will now go up against North Platte St. Pats in a district playoff with the winner to advance to the state tournament.

Score by quarter

Kimball 10 18 12 3 - 43

Hemingford 6 9 6 28 - 49