Longhorns had a tough go in 2014-15, ending up 6-14

The 2014-15 Kimball High boys basketball team had a real challenge this past season ending up with 6 wins and 14 losses. After graduating their two talented big guys who played such major roles the past two seasons, referring to Mike Daum and Jake Reader, this year's Longhorns lacked the height they could have used, plus they faced a lot of very talented teams this season as well.

Luke Dea, long time assistant, took over the head role this season after Bruce Tjosvold resigned the position and in all fairness, he did a good job with the club. He expected, and received good sportsmanship; and all out effort for the most part and the Horns had good leadership from the senior class, but again, they had to rely a lot of nights on the outside shooting as they went up against the taller teams they faced.

Let us look at the opposition starting with the pre-season Hall of Fame gain with class B Scottsbluff, a state qualifier. The Horns won over Dundy County and Morrill early and beat Perkins County to start out 3-0. Then it got tougher with a tall Bayard club, a state qualifying Class B Sidney team, a good Mitchell team that Kimball lost to but beat in the season ending game. They had losses to very strong Bridgeport and Hemingford clubs, and St. Pats and Sutherland clubs. Well, you get the picture.

Four senior starters will graduate including the tallest team member, Michael Ferguson at 6'3", along with Colton Stull, Jonathon Withrow, and Enrique Cajero. Coach Dea and staff will have to replace these four starters next season and more height. is not in sight, that I can see. Look at the points graduating with Ferguson the top scorer this season with 170, Stull with 144, Withrow 84, and Cajero 38. Ferguson led the rebounding with 113, Stull had 48, Cajero 47, and Withrow 41. This group's stats in steals and assists were also high, so the loss is big! Ferguson and Stull were honorable mention all conference.

Top returners include Tyler Magninie who scored 137 points as a junior, who transferred in. He averaged 8.6 points a game, shooting 36% from the field and a team high 73% from the foul line. He tied with Stull for most 3 pointers with 23 and was high in 3 point percentage at 37%. Angel Flores, a junior and a starter at the point guard position, scored 85 points and led the team in assists with 38 and steals with 37. Ethan Land, a junior, had 65 points and has fair height and good leaping ability.

Sophomore Jaden Withrow is physical and athletic and can play much bigger than he is. He ended up with 51 points. Trent Rutledge, a junior, finished with 55 points and 60 rebounds along with 23 assists and 19 steals and showed great improvement from start to finish and should play a key role for coach Dea next season with his height and abilities. Sophomore Jordan Greenwood also shows promise of becoming an outstanding player with his quickness, court sense, and all around basketball talents. This group is the main group that coach Dea will build around next season and there are some other young men who have shown some flashes of becoming important pieces to the puzzle.

There is an incoming group of really good freshmen, but here again, not a lot of height yet. Let's hope some of them really spring up over the off season.

This year's team had several players who could shoot the ball well from outside, but they struggled trying to score inside unless they were matched up with teams more of their size. This was true also of the junior varsity team. They have shooters coming back, and the incoming freshmen players can shoot the ball too. Hate to keep harping about the lack of height, but it really is the key element to getting more wins and to match up better with the opponents on the schedule.