TOURNEY TIME

It's time for the WTC tourney – and some home cookin' – for the Kimball Longhorns boys basketball team.

The Horns open the WTC tournament at home 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, as a No. 3 seed against No. 6 Bayard. The winner advances to a 6:30 p.m. Friday game at WNCC against the victor of the contest between No. 2 Mitchell and No. 7 Gordon-Rushville. The championship game is 6:30 p.m. Saturday at WNCC.

The Horns go into the tournament after splitting with Sutherland on Thursday, Jan. 25, and North Platte St. Pat's on Saturday, Jan. 27, to go to 9-6 on the season.

Here are recaps of the Sutherland and St. Pat's games, plus the JV's trip to Burns, Wyo., this week.

Kimball 68,

Sutherland 13

Thursday's home contest vs. Sutherland saw our players work hard on the defensive side of the court which led to 27 transition points and 39 points off of turnovers. Our man to man pressure created a lot of opportunities for us while holding our opponents to only 28 total field goal attempts and only committing 8 turnovers of our own, a season low.

Our crowd was great all evening and really came alive after a steal and two hand dunk by Kyler Lusche!!   Eleven of our 12 players who suited for the contest were able to get into the scoring column and it was great to see everyone from 1-12 compete with high energy.

Individually Brandon Paxton had another great game – only two steals shy of a Triple-Double. Brandon led us with 20pts, 10reb, and 8stl, while also adding 3blk and a very efficient 2.25 VPS rating.

Kyler Lusche added 10pts, 4stl, and 2blk while getting his first in game dunk of the season. Trevor Fuss was very efficient shooting the ball with a 83.3% eFG% while adding 10pts, 2ast, 0 turnovers and a VPS rating of 2.83. Ryker Behrend put in 5pts and grabbed 5reb, while Wyatt Cords, Bransyn Kiefer, and Kaymen Lusche each hit a 3 pointer.

Kaymen made the most of his minutes by also contributing 2ast and 1stl. Landon Norberg hustled to get 2reb, 1ast, and score off of one of his offensive rebounds for his 2 points on the night. Braxton Miller led the team with 6ast and scored on a transition bank shot of his own, while Luke Berger and Trey Cook finished with 2 points as well.

Going into the game our goals as a team was to hold Sutherland to only 2 made 3 pointers (1), hold them to under 30 points (13), and commit less than 15 turnovers (8).  Not only were our players able to attain these expectations but seeing the smiles on their faces of just how much they exceeded them makes coaching this group very special!

North Platte St. Pat's 53,

Kimball 39

Saturday's game in North Platte was a hard fought battle between two teams that felt like they had something to prove. Our players came out using the back cut and finding teammates cutting hard for finishes at the rim. Taking a 10-4 lead halfway through the first quarter, we put our opponents on their heels and forced them to call timeout. St. Pats came back tough as they put together a 10-0 run to take a 14-10 lead early in the second quarter. Kyler then hit a tough shot through contact with a made free throw to follow, closing the score to 14-13.

The rest of the game showed a lot of grit from our players getting steals and wreaking havoc. Unfortunately, they too created a lot of pressure and took us out of our rhythm on the offensive end.

Neither team shot the ball well as we shot 36.2% and St. Pats 34.7%. Our defense created 16 turnovers for our opponents, but unfortunately we too ended with 17 turnovers. Our biggest issue for the game, especially in the second half, was trying to keep All-Stater Brecken Erickson off the boards.  We gave up 20 offensive boards, 11 to Erickson alone, and that was just too tall of a task for us to overcome in the end. 

Individually, Brandon Paxton led us with 15pts, 3stl and 6blk. Kyler Lusche started out fast with 6 of his 10 points coming in the first 2 minutes of the game while also grabbing 5reb and getting two full court hustle blocks. Ryker Behrend added 8 points while finding opportunities to score inside and hustling to get 4reb. 

Braxton Miller led the team with 7reb and 5ast. Braxton, along with Wyatt Cords and Trevor Fuss, all finished out our scoring with 2 apiece. Bransyn Kiefer assisted on our only 3 pointer of the game while also becoming one of five players to grab 2 steals from our opponents.

All in all, we were very pleased with our team's efforts on the court. Anytime you can get a very disciplined team that has played in the state finals the past two seasons to turn the ball over 16 times, you know your defense is going hard and making things uncomfortable for your opponents.

We will get back to the grind again this Monday and are excited to be in front of our home crowd for the opening round of the WTC tournament this next week!

St. Pat's JV 58,

Kimball JV 34

Our JV squad took on North Platte St. Pats and played hard against an athletic group of players.

Kaymen Lusche hit three 3's in the first half and ended with 12 to lead our Longhorn team. Luke Berger had two 3's and ended with 8 for the game.  Others in the scoring column were Noe Trevino (4),  Landen Nunley (3), Sam Anderson (3), Landon Norberg  (2) and Francis Cagnoni (2).

Sam's 3 came as a buzzer beater at the end of the game and it was great to see his teammates celebrate with him knocking in his first three of the season!  

Burns JV 44,

Kimball JV 42

The Longhorn  JV went to Burns, WY this Monday to play a game that turned out to be a close game in the end. Our players battled hard all evening and saw a lot of good passing along with intensity in the full court press.

Down 9 with 2:10 to go Sam Anderson hit a jumper at the free throw line to start a comeback. A few possessions later, Kaymen Lusche was able to find a lane to drive and close the score within 5. Once Burns made 1 more free throw, Trey Cook had two quick scores coming from an inbound play and then a steal on the press cutting the lead to only 2 points. Trey was able to get another steal on the very next inbound and our kids had one more opportunity from the sideline with 11 seconds left.

Unfortunately, we were not able to convert on the last sequence of the game, but our players sure did battle hard all game long. We did a good job of creating turnovers but struggled sometimes converting them into points as often as we would have liked. However, this young squad is still growing together, and we saw a lot of great things from them during this game. 

 Kaymen Lusche ended the evening with 16, going 5/6 from the line. Three Longhorn players ended with 7 points each in Luke Berger, Trey Cook and Landen Nunley. Sam Anderson and Noe Trevino each contributed 2 points with Matias Sokac rounding out the scoring with 1pt.

The next contest for the JV Longhorn team will be next Tuesday at Pine Bluffs.