Lady Longhorns have a tough week

A tough week for the Kimball High girl's basketball team. After a three week layoff for the Christmas Holiday break, the Lady Horns returned to action with a three night consecutive schedule facing some of their strongest competition of the season.

They returned to play with a road trip to Sidney to face the state ranked Lady Raiders who are rated number 10 in Class B by the Omaha World Herald and gave the larger school all they could handle before losing 52-47.

The following night, yet another road trip to Mitchell to go up against a very strong Lady Tiger team and lost it at the final buzzer 44-42. To their credit, the Lady Horns came back strong on Saturday night at home to win over a very good Chase County Club 57-46, leaving them with a 7-2 record going into this week's play.

Sidney is ranked number 10 in Class B for a good reason as they have some talent and depth, but Kimball helped them out considerably in the first half of play with 17 turnovers. The hosts jumped out to a 17-12 lead after one quarter of play thanks in part to Kimball's 9 turnovers and 3 treys by the hot shooting Raiders. Arica McCloud gave Kimball some spark with a couple of long range baskets of her own. In the second period Kimball closed the gap, out scoring Sidney 13-10 and trailed 27-25 at half time. Alex Reader had 7 points by half time and sister Kate had 3 fouls Myriah Tyan chipped in with a couple of baskets and Madison Biesecker had already charted 4 assists, but 8 more turnovers hampered the cause.

When Danika Daum scored a bucket from the base line and then followed with a rebound put-back shot, Kimball took a 29-28 lead with 5:38 to play third quarter. Sidney came back with back to back treys however and held a 37-34 lead entering the fourth period. Kimball held the lead one more time after Kate Reader and Daum scored to start the fourth quarter to lead 38-37, but that would be their last lead as Sidney held on to win out 52-47. Both Reader sisters fouled out in the closing minutes.

In the final stats, the 26 turnovers were a killer, as were the 21 fouls. Kimball had 12 offensive and 19 defensive rebounds for 31 total while Sidney charted 34. Kimball didn't shoot the ball very well going 7/14 at the line, 2/10 on 3 point fielders and 17/47 on 2 point field goal attempts. They also had 11 steals and 11 assists. Sidney hit 5 treys and was 13/24 at the line which was the difference in the outcome and also had only 13 fouls.

Daum led Kimball scoring with 16 points. Kate Reader had 11 along with 9 rebounds. Alex Reader had 8 with 1 trey, Arica McCloud 5 with a trey and 3 steals. Madison Biesecker had 3 points plus 9 rebounds, 5 assists, and 2 steals, and Tyan ended up with 4 points.

Sidney had three girls in double figures led by Janay Brauer, a freshman, with 18 including 2 treys. Kelsey Knight had 12, and Emily Mahr 11 with 2 treys.

Kimball 12 13 9 13 -- 47

Sidney 17 10 10 15 -- 52

The game with Mitchell was a fan's delight with two very good basketball teams squaring off. Fouls and turnovers once again played a big role in causing the down fall for the Lady Horns.

Alex Reader picked up 3 quick fouls in the opening period, and Kate Reader had 3 by half time, earning both some way too early bench time. The host team led at all quarter breaks but always by just a couple of baskets.

Kimball had a strong start to the fourth period with Kailey Dickerson knocking down a 3 pointer, Arica McCloud scoring on a base line shot, Alex Reader then hit a trey and Kimball took a 40-39 lead. Kate Reader then fed McCloud for another base line basket and a 42-39 lead with under 2 minutes to play. The

Lady Horns had held Mitchell's 6'3" Keyana Wilfred to just 2 points up to this point but with :15 seconds showing on the clock she scored inside and was fouled. She missed the free throw and the score was tied at 42-42 after Myriah Tyan grabbed the rebound. Although Kimball held their turnovers to a very good 10 for the game, they turned it over 5 times in the fourth period and twice in the closing seconds, including the game costing TO which allowed Wilfred to cast in a 15 footer at the buzzer.

Kimball had 17 fouls and Mitchell 8. For the second straight night fouls and turnovers proved costly. Kimball shot the ball fairly well going 7/7 at the line but they needed to get there more often. They were 7/29 on 3 pointers and 7/26 on 2 point field goal attempts, had 11 offensive and 15 defensive rebounds for 26 total while Mitchell ended up with 34. Kimball had 13 steals, 7 assists and 1 block. Mitchell was 7/11 at the line,

3/8 on 3 pointers and 14/40 on 2 pointers.

Another strong night for Madison Biesecker with 13 points including 2 treys, plus 6 rebounds, 4 steals, and 2 assists. Arica McCloud shared team high scoring honors with her 13 points with 1 trey. Kailey Dickerson hit a pair of treys for her 6 points, Alex Reader also hit a pair of treys for 6 points, and Mitchell did a good job of shutting down Daum holding her to just 4 points along with 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block. They also held Kate Reader scoreless but the talented young freshman charted 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists, and joined sister Alex on the bench for long periods of time due to early fouls.

No one in double figure scoring for Mitchell but they had 7 players contribute led by Jori Peters with 9, Anabelle Gillen 7, Kenzey Kanno 7, Wilfred 6, Celeste Cardona 8, Jessica Cotant 4, and Madison Watson 3.

Kimball 12 8 12 10 -- 42

Mitchell 15 11 13 5 -- 44

With two heart breaking losses fresh in their minds, and on leg-weary-legs from those two losses, coach Chauncey Pedersen didn't know how his girls would respond on their third straight night, but no worry, the Lady Horns came to play. Alex Reader started it off with a trey and hit another a few seconds later and Kimball jumped out to a 19-6 early lead and led 20-10 at the quarter break. Chase County came back strong in the second period but Kimball led 32-23 at half time and was on top 40-33 after three quarters and coasted in to win 57-46. Chase County is 1-10 on the season but have lost several games by 1 or 2 points.

Danika Daum got back inside and had a more customary set of stats against Chase County leading all scorers with 27 points going 9/9 at the foul line, 2/4 on treys, and 6/11 on 2 point fielders. She had a double-double with 10 rebounds. A more customary night also for Kate Reader as she hit for 10 points and was 4/4 at the line. Alex Reader also with 10 points with 3 treys. Biesecker had 5 points with a trey, McCloud 4, and Tyan 1.

In team stats Kimball had 20 turnovers, 14 fouls, were 17/20 at the line, 6/17 on 3 pointers and 11/39 on 2 point field goals, had 11 offensvie and 16 defensive rebounds for 27 total, 15 steals, 8 assists, and 2 blocked shots.

Chase County had 31 rebounds 16 fouls, were 5/8 at the foul line and hit 1 trey. Taylin McNair led Chase County with 21 points backed by Ragan Nickless with 10.

Kimball 20 12 8 17 -- 57

Chase Co. 10 13 10 13 -- 46

Commenting on the week, coach Chauncey Pedersen said "The three week layoff might have hurt us some. I felt we came out sluggish at Sidney and our first half turnovers really hurt us. We played better the second half. We didn't get to the foul line enough. This was Sidney's fourth game since the break."

"At Mitchell I felt we played pretty well. We kept our turnovers down but we made some costly ones at the end of the game. Again, this was our second game back and Mitchell had been playing. Mitchell is a good team and any time we meet up it is going to be a good game. It is frustrating knowing we could have won this game. We had some early foul trouble and they did a good job of shutting Danika down."

"We had a fast start Saturday with Chase County and you always wonder just how you are going to play after suffering two back to back tough losses, but the girls came out and played hard and we shot free throws well."

Another tough week this week for the Lady Horns as they were at state ranked Potter Dix this past Tuesday, then have Bridgeport at home Friday and Gordon-Rushville Saturday, then move into SPVA Conference Tournament play starting Monday with yet another home game with an undetermined (at the time of this writing) opponent in first round play before moving into additional play at North Platte Community College for the remainder of the tournament.