Lady Horns Nipping At .500

A split weekend for the Kimball High girls as they won big at Sutherland on Friday night, but lost like every other team has done to North Platte St. Pats on Saturday.

The Lady Longhorns are still hovering around the .500 mark with their 7 win, 8 loss record.

The Kimball girls had no trouble at Sutherland, bringing home a 54-21 victory. They outscored the Lady Sailors in every period, busting out early to lead 15-5 at the first quarter break, and were up 27-12 at halftime.

It was more of the same in the second half as they dominated from start to finish.

Carli Wurdeman led the Kimball scoring with 16 points, including a pair of treys, and also pulled 7 rebounds. Sydney Biesecker had 2 treys and led in steals with 4. Kate Reader had 10 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Madison Wynne finished with 6 points and 4 assists, Megan Spicer 9 points, Payton Wise 2, and Lacey Klinkhammer 1.

In team stats, Kimball shot 21 of 56 from the field for 38% and were 4/9 from 3 point range and 8/15 from the foul line for 53%. They charted 26 rebounds, 19 steals, 13 assists, 14 fouls and 13 turnovers.

Kimball 15 12 11 16 – 54

Sutherland 5 7 4 5 – 21

The St. Pats Lady Irish rolled into Kimball ranked number 1 in the State Class D-1 rankings with an 18-0 undefeated record and they left town with 1 more win to add to their lofty record.

Kimball battled hard and gave a good effort against one of the state’s best. They trailed 14-8 at the quarter break and were still in range at 31-20 at halftime, but the Lady Horns were outscored each and every period and ended up losing 70-40.

Kimball shot 15/58 from the field for 26%, including 2/17 on 3 point attempts, and were 8/17 at the line for 47%.

They did a good job on the boards with 30 rebounds, had 6 steals, 8 assists, 20 fouls and 22 turnovers.

Kate Reader shot the ball well, connecting on 5 of 7 from the floor and 2 of 3 at the line for 12 points. She also pulled 6 rebounds. Carli Wurdeman finished with 8 points and a team high 7 rebounds. Megan Spicer had 5 points with trey, Madison Wynne 4, Jaydin Paxton 3 with her trey, Sydney Biesecker 4, Payton Wise had 2 points and 5 rebounds, and Lacey Klinkhammer had 2.

The St. Pats girls start 4 seniors and a junior, and their experience shows. They are tall and talented, and their record shows it. Kaleigh Kummer led the Lady Irish with 21 points, hitting 3 treys. Hayley Homan finished with 16, Calli Groseth 12, and Jocylin Sellers 8 – and a total of 8 of their girls got into the scoring act.

The Kimball girls move into Western Trails Conference Tournament play this week and with their number 4 seed will host Gordon-Rushville this evening (Thursday) in play

beginning at 6 p.m. A win will advance them into Friday’s semifinal play at Cougar Palace in Scottsbluff, while a loss eliminates them from additional play.

Tonight’s winner will go up against top seeded Mitchell, which received a first round bye, and that game will be at 2 p.m. Friday. The tournament play ends up on Saturday at Cougar Palace.

The Kimball girls, and boys, have tough games this coming Tuesday, February 5, when they host Pine Bluffs for a full slate of action beginning at 4 p.m. for JV play.

Kimball 8 12 11 9 – 40

St Pats 14 17 17 22 – 70