Kimball boys give favored Bridgeport a scare

The Kimball High boys were the number 7 seed in this past week’s WTC Conference Basketball Tournament and went on the road to Bridgeport to battle number 2 seeded Bulldogs on their home court and lost 43-35, but not before giving the host school a scare.

In a low scoring first half, Kimball held a 19-17 lead at intermission after trailing the Dogs 12-11 at the end of the first quarter, and then outscoring Bridgeport 8-5 in the second period. A good night for Izaac Reuter, who took game scoring honors with 18, as he had 10 points at half-time. Bridgeport regained the lead at 32-31 after three quarters of play, but Reuter hit a trey to start the 4th period and Kimball led 34-32, but that would be their last lead as the Bulldogs answered with a trey of their own, and then outscored the Horns 11-4 in the final period, going 5 of 6 at the foul line in the closing seconds.

Reuter nailed 2 treys enroute to charting his 18 points, had a block and 4 steals. Brady Kilgore had 5 points and 6 rebounds. Corey Travis, 4 points, plus a team high 10 rebounds and had 4 steals. Colton Mielke also had 4 points with 1 trey and Zane Anthony had 4 points. The Horns were without the services of key players, including sophomore, Brandan Walker, who has been a big factor for the Horns as of late. He was home nursing a case of the flu and could have made a big difference in the outcome of this contest.

In team stats, Kimball shot 28% from the field making 15/53 attempts and were 2/3 at the foul line. They pulled 23 rebounds, had 11 steals, 9 assists and only 7 turnovers and 12 fouls.

Bridgeport had 6 treys and won the game at the foul line, where they were 11 of 13. All other team stats were comparable. The Bulldogs had a height advantage with 6’5” Drake DeMasters high for the winners with 14 points, 6’2” Logan Nichols with 8, and 6’5” Eric Stevens with 9, although Kimball coaches had a good plan in holding Stevens to no 3 pointers and he had just one field goal, but 7/9 at the foul line. Kaleb Lusetto hit 3 treys and had 9 points and Cole Faessler hit a trey for his 3 points.

Bridgeport went on to win 55-54 over Hemingford in semi-final play and then lost 45-44 in the championship to top seeded Gordon-Rushville. In other first round play, Mitchell won over Bayard 69-48, and Hemingford won over Morrill 87-47. Hemingford won the consolation finals to take 3rd place with a 67-61 win over Mitchell.

Bridgeport 12 5 15 11--43

Kimball 11 8 12 4--35