Lady Longhorns pick up wins over Perkins County and Morrill

The Kimball High Lady Longhorns ran their season record to 3-1 with wins over Perkins County and Morrill this past weekend. An easy win over the girls from Grant on Friday night in front of the hometown fans as they coasted to a 65-25 victory, and then a key win over a tough Morrill club on the road Saturday 58-51.

That's the good news, the negative news is team leader Alex Reader suffered a knee injury that could be devastating news to coach Chauncey Pedersen and the Kimball team. The sharp shooting junior who is already a school record holder and a returning all conference and all everything player for the Lady Horns, was to have an evaluation with medical experts in Loveland, Colorado this past Tuesday, but it appears quite certain coach Pedersen will not have his top scorer for this weekend's action.

Kimball jumped out to an early 16-0 lead over Perkins County with Hannah Biesecker getting things started by scoring the first 4 points and the Lady Horns led 21-7 at the quarter break. Alex Reader hit a pair of treys to get the second quarter going and tallied 9 points in the period as Kimball took a 36-14 margin to the half time locker room. They outscored the Grant ladies 16-1 in the third period and the starters were done with 3 minutes left in the 3rd period and the bench finished it out in strong fashion.

Ten players scored for the winners with Kate Reader high with 16 points and also led in rebounds with 9, steals with 3, and blocks with 2. Alex Reader hit a pair of treys and had 11 points, Alexis Lulf nailed 3 treys and had 10 points, Justine Heeg and Hannah Biesecker both charted 6 points, Shauntae Daily, Kaylyn Nelson and Jannel Fiehtner all with 4 points, Lacey Klinkhammer and Carli Wurdeman had 2 each. Kimball was 26/55 from the field including 5/13 on 3 point tries, and 8/17 at the foul line. They controlled the boards with 44 rebounds, had 10 steals, 16 assists, 19 turnovers and 17 personal fouls. Perkins County was led in scoring by Aryn Seiler with 9 points.

Kimball 21 15 16 13 -- 65

Perkins Co. 7 7 1 10 -- 25

Coach Pedersen was expecting a tough game on the Lady Lions home court, but his game plan, and his ladies executing it, enabled the Lady Horns to lead at every quarter break. Some early courproblems sent Kate Reader and Jannel Fiehtner to the bench, but coach Pedersen got some good relief play from his bench with Daily completing a big 3 point play at the end of the last quarter to give Kimball a 14-11 lead. Kate Reader was back in to score 6 points in the second period and Hannah Biesecker nailed 3 free throws and the Horns led 25-19 at half time.

Kimball was playing hard and giving good effort and they continued in second half play. Justine Heeg had her best game of the young season coming up with several key plays. Lulf, and Biesecker also came through with some key plays and Alex Reader had a 7 point 3rd quarter as Kimball pushed the margin to 45-32 going into the 4th period.

The home town girls hit the first 7 points of the final period to close to 45-39, but Kimball responded with a 6 point run of their own. Alex Reader suffered her injury with 1:09 left in the ball game chasing a Morrill player down court, and after the delay in play as Reader was helped from the court, Morrill tallied 5 points to close once again to within 4, 52-48, but Fiehtner hit a couple of free throws and Kate Reader went 4 for 4 at the line in the closing seconds to secure the win. The second win of the young season over a talented Morrill club took some of the sting out of the injury to one of their star players.

Morrill's cause was hampered when ace player Jessica Harvey picked up her 4th foul early in the third quarter and had to spend time on the bench. Harvey still led the Lady Lions with 16 points including a late 3 pointer to close to 55-51 with 20 seconds remaining. Stefani Tarin and Kaitlyn Margheim both hit double figures with 10 points. Morrill hit 4 treys, were 11/19 at the line and had 25 fouls called.

Alex Reader led Kimball with 16 points including 3 treys and 3/4 foul shooting, had 6 rebounds, and team high 4 steals. Kate Reader had 15 points going 7/8 at the line, a team high 7 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists. Biesecker had 9 points and was 5/6 at the line, and pulled 5 rebounds. Heeg finished with 8 points with 1 trey, had 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists. Lulf had 4 points and 5 rebounds. Daily and Fiehtner both scored 3 points.

In team stats, Kimball was 17/55 from the field including 4/20 from 3 point range, and a good 20/28 at the foul line for 71%. They had 32 rebounds, 11 steals, 11 assists, 17 turnovers, and 17 fouls.

Coach Pedersen was happy with the play of his girls for the weekend. "It was nice to be able to use so many girls Friday night and to see them respond like they did. I was relieved to get the second win over Morrill. Not knowing the extent of Alex's injury, we have to prepare this week on how to handle her loss to our lineup. Hershey especially will be a bit of a test for us this weekend. They are big and physical. We will experiment with our lineups in practice this week, and just hope Alex will be back with us sooner than later."

Kimball is at home both nights this weekend hosting Hershey Friday night with JV games set for 3:30, varsity girls at 5 and boy's varsity at 6:30. Bayard comes to Kimball Saturday with games beginning at 2 p.m., girl's varsity at 3:30 and boy's at 5 p.m.

Kimball 14 11 20 13 -- 58

Morrill 11 8 13 19--51