Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Kimball boys win over Mitchell

The Kimball High boys entertained their home fans with a 71-49 win over visiting Mitchell on Senior Parent's Night and Kimball's seniors played a major role in securing the victory in their final appearance on the Kimball court.

No doubt the Horns were ready to shine as they broke out to a 22-5 lead at the end of the opening period of play with big Mike Daum showing off his long ball shooting skills as he nailed 3 of his 5 treys on the night in the first quarter, and had 13 points at the quarter break and 25 at half time, ending up with 36 to take game scoring honors. His other 2 treys came in the second period leaving him with 5 at intermission. Coach Bruce Tjosvold said "This was probably our best offensive showing of the year." Daum led that offensive attack going 9/11 on 2 point field goal attempts and 5/10 on 3 pointers along with 3/3 at the foul line. He got his double-double as usual with 10 rebounds, had 5 blocks, a steal and an assist.

A big night for senior Jake Reader as well as he tallied 18 points on 50% shooting from the field and was 6/8 at the line, had 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 block and 3 assists.

Senior Henry Heeg had 5 points with a trey and 2/2 foul shooting, and senior Mitchell Shields had 2 points. Other scoring came from Trent Rutledge with 2, Colton Stull 3, Jonathon Withrow 3, and Michael Ferguson 2.

As a team, Kimball shot 42% from the field going 25/59 on 2 point attempts and 8/18 on 3 pointers, and were solid at the foul line making 13/15 for 87%. They had 29 rebounds with 6 offensive, 7 blocked shots, 8 steals, 7 assists, 13 fouls, and 12 turnovers. Mitchell had 15 fouls, 14 2 point field goals, 4 3 pointers, and were 9/13 at the line. Bo McVay was the only Tiger in double figures with 10.

It would appear that Kimball is peaking at the right time as they head into sub-district tournament play as the #1 seed and were to face the winner of Monday night's Bayard-Perkins County game. The win on Tuesday night would put them into tonight's (Thursday) finals at 7 p.m. at Sidney. Tjosvold said "We have really been playing good defense and now I think our offense is playing their best of the season as well. We look forward to playing well in the sub-district and district tournaments."

Kimball 22 19 17 13 -- 71

Mitchell 05 16 15 13 -- 49

The Kimball junior varsity also won over Mitchell with a score of 61-52. For Kimball, Trent Rutledge was high with 15,Enrique Cajero and Jordan Greenwood 11 each, Jaden Withrow 9, Angel Flores 7, Ethan Land 6, and Dakota Flores 2.