Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Kimball's Zane Anthony jumps off against Dundy County-Stratton's Serbando Diaz in the final boy's game of the Kimball tournament. Dundy County-Stratton went on to take top honors over host, Kimball Longhorns.
Dundy County-Stratton ran past host Kimball in winning the championship of the boy's division of the Kimball four-team tournament this past weekend with Morrill winning over Potter-Dix for third place honors. The Kimball Tournament was the season opener for all teams involved and was held on Friday and Saturday at the Kimball High site.
Dundy County-Stratton and Morrill faced each other in first round play and the Tigers devoured the Lions by a score of 73-29.
Kimball went up against Potter-Dix in the other first round pairing and the Longhorns won out 72-15 over the smaller Coyote team. The Horns jumped out to a 17-0 lead with Brady Kilgore scoring eight of those early points, and Kimball held a 23-4 lead at the quarter break and were up 40-9 at the half-time intermission. Colton Mielke had a big second quarter, scoring 10 points and ended up high for the Horns with 15 on the night with 11 Kimball players getting into the scoring columns as Coach Luke Dea went to his bench early and often with the reserves getting lots of playing time.
Behind Mielke in the scoring for Kimball were Corey Travis with 9 and he also was big on the boards. Kole Bush had 8, Kilgore 8, Brendan Walker 7, Izaac Reuter 7, Sam Cajero 6, Beau Hanks 4, Jacob Withrow 4, Austin Lulf 2 and Zane Anthony 2. Mielke, Reuter and Walker all nailed treys.
Potter-Dix had Dylan Nielsen with six on a pair of treys, Connor Williams had 5 with one trey and Gage Soucie and JT Herboldsheimer both had 2. Williams did a good job of handling the ball out front for the Coyotes.
Kimball 23 17 19 13 – 72
P.-Dix 4 5 3 3 – 15
In the consolation finals, Morrill won over Potter-Dix 50-19 with Robb Keaton high for the winnners with 15 points as Morrill had eight players in the scoring act.
Nielsen led Potter-Dix with 11 points going 11 of 14 at the foul line and did a solid job on the boards for the Coyotes. Williams had 5, Herboldsheimer 2 and Terell Gray 1.
Morrill 17 10 8 15 – 50
P.-Dix 6 5 3 5 – 19
Kimball got off to a good start in the title game with Dundy County-Stratton and trailed 17-15 at the quarter break, but got out-hustled and out-quicked by the Tigers, and were also out-scored 30-13 in the second period to trail 47-28 at half-time. By the end of the third period Kimball was down 61-34 and the final tally was 64-49.
The champs had nine players score, led by 5'11" senior Phalen Sanford with 14 and the well-built senior guard pleased the crowd with a driving slam dunk, showing off his leaping ability. Matthew Lorens had 11 and Serbando Diaz and Michael Frederick both scored 9. The out front play of the Tigers was ferocious as they came at the Horns full bore for all four quarters with an aggressive defense and a fast-paced offense.
Kimball had nine players score as Coach Dea once again used his bench, giving lots of players an opportunity to get some varsity playing time. Colton Mielke was once again high for Kimball with 11, including a pair of treys. Kole Bush, Kimball's lone senior, hit a trey and had 10 points and had an all around solid game. Beau Hanks, 6'3" sophomore, played big and hit some driving layins to finish with eight points, Brady Kilgore ended with 5, Izaac Reuter 4, Brendan Walker 4, Corey Travis 3, Jaren Winstrom 2 and Sam Cajero 2.
Dundy Co.-Stratton 17 30 14 3 – 64
Kimball 15 13 6 15 – 49
