Local Basketball in swing before break

A double-win weekend for the Kimball girls as they ran their season record to 3-1. On Friday night at home the Lady Longhorns won over Perkins County 65-29 and on Saturday at Morrill they came out on top 58-40. A good offensive showing both nights for the Kimball ladies!

Both nights Kimball started slow and against Perkins County they actually trailed 5-3 before they got rebound baskets from Carli Wurdeman and Sydney Biesecker along with a layin from Megan Spicer to lead 9-5 at the quarter break. They got it rolling better in the second quarter with all five starters scoring and at half time they increased their lead to 23-11. With Carli Wurdeman hitting 4 of her 5 treys in the 3rd quarter, Kimball poured in 26 points while holding the visitors to just 9 to take a 49-20 lead into the 4th quarter. Biesecker kept things going the right way by scoring the first 3 baskets of the 4th period and Wurdeman did a great job of controlling Kimball's offense in the final quarter with pin-point passing and ball distribution from her point guard position. She ended up with 10 assists!

Kimball had 4 players in double figure scoring with Wurdeman and Megan Spicer both finishing with 17 points and Wurdeman accounting for all five of Kimball's 3 point field goals. Kate Reader charted 14 points and pulled 12 rebounds for her double-double. She also led in steals with 6 and had 6 assists. In the rebound department, 8 were offensive boards. Sydney Biesecker had 11 points and 7 rebounds. Madison Wynne had 4 points, and freshman Sarinda Bateman closed out Kimball scoring with her bucket in the lane.

In team stats, Kimball was 28/72 from the field for 39% including 5/21 on 3 point attempts for 24% and were only 4/13 at the line for 31%. They had 33 rebounds with 15 offensive, 2 blocks, 13 steals, 24 assists, 15 turnovers, and 11 fouls.

Perkins County has a young roster with only 1 senior and the rest all sophomores and freshmen. Their stats showed them with 8 two point field goals, 2 three pointers, 7/11 at the line and 13 fouls. Dani Purge led their scoring with 11, Meghan Bishop had 6, Rylee Huff 4 and four other players had 2 each.

Kimball 9 14 26 16---65

Perkins Co. 5 6 9 9---29

The Kimball and Morrill girls met up two weeks ago in the season opener for both teams and Kimball won that game in first round play of the Kimball Tournament, 44-20. The rematch Saturday night at Morrill was more offensive with Kimball winning again 58-40. For the second straight night, the Lady Horns had a slow start due to some poor shooting and way too many turnovers. They found themselves trailing 9-4 after the opening period of play. Coach Chauncey Pedersen had a talk with his girls, got their attention, and Kimball came to life in the second quarter to outscore their hosts 23-5 to take a 27-14 lead into the half time locker room. Carli Wurdeman got things rolling with 3 treys and 10 points in the 2nd quarter and Kimball had a 9-0 scoring run to take the lead.

With Kate Reader and Wurdeman both scoring 6 points in the 3rd quarter, Kimball improved their margin to 42-25 by the end of the period. Megan Spicer, who took several hard falls on the night, fouled out with just over 2 minutes to play, but freshman Katie Heeg has been seeing some varsity court time and doing an admirable job, and Sam Bemis returned to the roster also on Saturday for her first playing time this season. Kimball out scored Morrill 16-15 in the final stanza for the win.

Big scoring night for both Wurdeman and Reader as Wrudeman led with 19 points connecting on 3 treys and going 5/7 at the line. The 5'5" junior point guard has proven to be a very competent long range threat for coach Pedersen, along with running the offense with her passing and direction. She also had 3 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists. Reader finished with 18 points and hauled in an amazing 20 rebounds including 13 offensive boards. She also had 3 blocked shots, 3 steals and 3 assists. Spicer had 6 points, Biesecker 8 points and 8 rebounds, and Sam Bemis had 4 points and 7 rebounds and it was nice to see her quickness back in the lineup.

In team stats, Kimball was 20/57 from the field for 35% including 4/10 from 3 point range, and were 14/25 at the line for 56%. They had 38 rebounds with 13 offensive, 5 blocks, 11 steals, 10 assists, 21 turnovers and 22 fouls.

Morrill had 13 field goals including 3 treys, were 11/27 at the line, and had 15 fouls. Scoring for the young Morrill team were Mya Conseco and Andrea Lashley both with 10, Libbie Schaeffer 9, Madison Mendoza 6, and Peyton Gibson 5.

Coach Chauncey Pedersen was happy with the wins but a bit concerned with the slow starts. "I am happy of course with our wins this weekend but am really not too happy with the slow starts we have been having. So far we have been able to over come our bad first quarters, but we need to get this straightened out" he said.

A pair of home court games this weekend before going into the Christmas break. Hershey comes to town Friday night for JV games beginning at 3:30 and the girl's varsity game to start at 5 p.m. On Saturday it is Bayard at Kimball with JV game time at 2 and girl's varsity at 3:30. The Knights of Columbus are to hold a Spaghetti feed Friday night.

Kimball 4 23 15 16---58

Morrill 9 5 11 15---40