Jock Talk

The 2015-16 Western Trails Conference Basketball Tournament was a strange, and upsetting, affair! It turned out to be a lot of fun for Gordon-Rushville as they won both the girl’s and boy’s team championships. There should be dancing in the streets back in Gordon and Rushville in celebration of the way their respective teams performed this past weekend.

Take the girls team first. The Lady Mustangs came into tournament play seeded number 5. They simply demolished their opponents. In first round play they won 62-46 over 4 seed Morrill, then blasted number 1 seed Hemingford 85-70 in semi final play, and won over number 3 seed Kimball 60-39 in the championship game. Almost unbelievable they scored 85 points on Hemingford, a team that had only 1 loss coming into tournament play and ranked number 3 in the state C-2 rankings. Hemingford scores 70 points and loses by 15 points! That is a lot of points scored for both the losers and winners!

In the boy’s bracket Gordon-Rushville is the number 3 seed but blasted number 6 seed Bayard 65-37 in first round play, then won 68-44 over number 2 seed Hemingford, and finished out with a 40-34 upset of number 1 ranked Bridgeport in the title game. Hats off to Gordon-Rushville for their great showing!

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However, Kimball has the right to sing a little sour grapes as they were at a huge disadvantage in the championship of the girl’s game playing without their leading scorer in Danika Daum who went out with a foot injury late in the semi final win over Mitchell. Daum was unable to go in the title game Saturday, and at the time of this writing it is still up in the air as to when she might be able to return, if at all, this season.

When you take a four year starter, and your leading scorer, who has scored 362 points this season, including a school record 40 points in one game, is averaging 18.1 points per game, which is ranked number 5 in the state class C-l stats this year, you are taking a big chunk out of your game! Coach Chauncey Pedersen said “It just isn’t fair. The other team should have to take their top player out too.” Danika also averages 8.3 rebounds per game, and at six foot, commands a lot of respect for her defensive play. The Lady Longhorns had a goal of winning both conference tournaments they are involved in, and it just didn’t happen, thanks in large part with Daum being injured.

None the less, a good showing Lady Longhorns for your runner-up finish. Miss Daum’s injury also came at about the worst time it could have as they were up against a very good Pine Bluffs team with only 1 loss this past Tuesday, and they host a very good Hemingford team tomorrow (Friday) night in the final regular season home game before they move into sub-district play this coming Monday (February 15) at Alliance with all four teams involved capable of winning out. The Fab-Four at the sub-district include Kimball, Chadron, Mitchell, and Gordon-Rushville. The winner, and probably a wild card state qualifier could come out of this sub-district play. The Lady Horns are limited on depth so please get well Danika.

By virtue of losses this past week, both Kimball and Mitchell dropped out of the top ten in the C-l state rankings but Chadron is still in at number 8. Hemingford is number 4 in C-2 dropping only one spot from last week by virtue of their loss to Gordon-Rushville.

Wish I could give you the bracket for the sub-district play that begins Monday in Alliance for those four C-l schools I mentioned but the seedings did not happen in time for our weekly paper deadline.

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Disappointing news to report on the Kimball Wrestling program as well this week. Coach Wade Brashear ended up with only two wrestlers available to take to the SPVA Tournament this past week and only Toby McManigal ended up wrestling. The young freshman is in a tough weight class for his age and class and failed to win in his three times on the mat so Kimball was scoreless. Coach Brashear has been haunted by illness, injuries scholastic eligibility, and family situations and hopefully things get better as district tournament action for state qualifying begins tomorrow (February 12) at Broken Bow and continues on Saturday.

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Also received news that the Potter-Dix Freshman-Sophomore Basketball Tournament has been cancelled this year due to the bad snow storms.

Kimball High Activities Director, Ken Smith, informed me that next year Potter-Dix will be involved in the Kimball Four Team Basketball Tournament that tips off the season. They will take the place of McPherson County/with Morrill and Dundy County, along with Kimball, making up the balance of the four school tournament. This is a good addition as the Coyotes are a strong Class D program and has a good fan following.

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Weather has caused cancellations and the Kimball freshmen cancelled their games at Gering this past Monday, but they are scheduled to play at Pine Bluffs tonight (Thursday). Lots of Kimball junior high boys basketball going on however.

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Updating you on the play of two former Kimball High standout basketball players. Mike Daum and his South Dakota State team mates won over IUPUI 80-58 this past week to run their season record to 18-5. Daum had 22 minutes of play, scored 16 points on 4/6 field goal shooting hitting 1 of 2 treys, and 7/9 free throws and pulled 5 rebounds.

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Kendall Ferguson at Hastings College had to sit out a couple of games with a back problem but returned to play against rival Doane College but wasn’t near up to par and maybe should have waited a bit longer. Hastings lost 87-78 and Fergie had just 3 points and 6 rebounds.

He was back in form however this past Saturday night in a 90-88 action packed win over Northwestern of Iowa. Kendall had a double-double with 20 points and 10 rebounds. He was 8/12 from the field and 1/3 on three pointers, had 2 blocks and 3 steals.