Kimball boys suffer pair of losses at WTC Tourney

The Kimball High boys received the number one seed and a first round bye into the 2017 Western Trails Conference basketball tournament, but along the way they stumbled and suffered a pair of back-to-back defeats to finish a disappointing fourth.

In Friday night semi-final play, they went up against Hemingford, a 62-31 winner over Morrill in a first round pairing. The Horns lost 54-46. They played like they were sick, because they were sick. A good share of the Kimball players were battling illness, and it showed. Shots simply were not falling for the Horns, but they managed to take a 9-7 lead at the close of the opening period thanks to three point field goals by Colton Mielke and Brandon Barker. Hemingford outscored Kimball 20-12 in the second quarter to surge to a 27-21 half time margin and outscored the Big Red 27-25 in second half play for the win. The start the third quarter of play, the Bobcats scored the first ten points to go up 37-21, taking a 16 point lead.

Jordan Greenwood was not only battling illness, but also foul problems that had him on the bench for periods of time, and fouled out with 2:31 remaining. He led Kimball with 13 points with one trey. Barker suffered a knee injury that brought him to the bench late, but he hit double figure scoring with 10, including two treys. Mielke hit a pair of treys for six points, Izaac Reuter tallied six points and did a good job on the boards. Jaden Withrow was held to four points with one trey and Ed Barnes, also strong on the boards, finished with seven points.

A complete set of team stats were not available thanks to computer malfunction, but the Horns had eight 2-point field goals, eight 3-point field goals, were 6/11 at the line and had 17 fouls.

Hemingford had 15 two-point field goals, four 3-point field goals, were 12/19 at the line and had 14 fouls. They were led in scoring by Jameson Wood with 20 points, Casey Lashley with 12 and Brandon Chancellor with eight.

Kimball 9 12 47 18 – 46

Hemingford 7 20 13 14 – 54

Following the semi-final loss to Hemingford, Kimball dropped into the consolation bracket where they went up against Bridgeport, a team that won their first round game over Mitchell 47-35, before losing to Gordon-Rushville 46-37 in semi-final action. The Horns defeated Bridgeport 69-46 back in mid-January and by virtue of their first quarter play, it appeared they would repeat again with an easy win. With Reuter leading the way with some sharp long range shooting, including three treys and his last one right at the buzzer, the Horns stormed back from an 11-3 deficit to score the last 20 points and take a 23-11 lead after one quarter of play.

Bridgeport out scored Kimball 9-7 in second quarter play, but the Horns still held a 10 point margin, up 30-20 at halftime as Reuter hit another three-pointer. Coach Nick Broz has brought this group of young Bulldogs along and they are showing great improvement from early season. The Bulldogs went on a 13-0 run to start the third quarter hitting four treys in that time frame.

They outscored Kimball 15-8 in third period play to narrow the lead to 38-35 with Kimball still on top entering the fourth and final period.

The fourth quarter started with Withrow converting a three-point play after being fouled on a mead basket, and then scoring on a steal and layin to put the Horns up 46-35. The Dogs scored the next 11 points to tie it at 46-46 with :57 seconds left. Greenwood took some pressure off by scoring with :49 seconds left and when fouled on the basket, making the free throw to go up 49-46. Eric Stevens, 6’5” junior, hit a three-pointer with :29 left to knot the score again at 49-49.

Kimball played for a final shot and Greenwood’s long trey attempt went of the front of the rim with 1.8 seconds showing on the clock. Only a miracle would keep this game from going to overtime as Bridgeport in-bounded. Kaleb Lussetto, 5’6” sophomore would provide that miracle as he fired up from near half court in the college length Cougar Palace gymnasium and watched his long shot swish nothing but net as time expired. Bridgeport wins 52-49!

The show you the closeness of this dramatic contest, both teams had 10 two-point field goals. Both teams made five free throws. Kimball made eight 3-pointers and Bridgeport made nine three-pointers, including the winning shot by Lussetto. Just one made-shot, difference! In other team stats, Kimball was 5/5 at the line and Bridgeport 5/7. Kimball had 14 fouls called and Bridgeport nine. Kimball was 18/67 from the field and 8/33 on three-pointers, had 32 rebounds, two blocked shots, ten steals, six assists and nine turnovers. Bridgeport shot 19/51 from the field and were 9/29 on three-pointers, had 32 rebounds, four blocks, six steals, ten assists and 18 turnovers.

Withrow led Kimball with 18 points including two treys and 2/2 foul shooting. He also led the team in steals with six. The official book had Reuter with 14 points including four treys along with ten rebounds for a double-double and an all around good night. Greenwood finished with seven, Ed Barnes had five points with one trey along with seven rebounds and two blocks. Barker had three points with one trey and charted eight rebounds. Mielke had two points.

Stevens led Bridgeport with 24 points including four treys. Logan Nichols, 6’4” sophomore, had 15 points with three treys. Connor Wiggins, 6’4” senior had five points, Nate Schmunk had three with a trey and Lussetto had five including the winning miracle shot.

Coach Nick Kuxhausen knew his team was battling illness but didn’t use it as an excuse in his post game comments. “We didn’t shoot the ball very well either night and got out of our offense at times. On the other hand, we have won a lot of games this year taking those shots.”

Now the Horns have to face a powerful Hershey club on Saturday night at home and tomorrow night (Friday) they travel to Hemingford to try and get revenge on the Bobcats who helped spoil their WTC Tournament dreams. JV game times at Hemingford begin at 2 p.m. Saturday JV game times are at 3 p.m. and don’t forget the Music Parents’ Soup Supper and Bake Sale.

Kimball 23 7 8 1 – 49

Bridgeport 11 9 15 17 – 52