Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Brandon Paxton, soaring to the rim here, led the Longhorns in most statistical categories in the win against Garden County.
The Longhorns boys basketball team travels to Hershey on Friday, Dec. 15, with a 4-1 record to close out the December portion of their schedule. Here's a look at their previous three games in which they went 2-1.
Kimball 77,
Garden County 49
This was a great team victory in front of our hometown supporters. They got to see our Lady Longhorns take home a victory as well, which made it even better for our loud hometown fans.
As far as our game goes, we had 5 players reach double digits in scoring while Brandon Paxton led us in almost every statistical category other than scoring. He was our leader in rebounds (18), assists (7), blocks (7), and steals (5) while also scoring 12 points and having a very efficient 2.62 VPS rating. That is only 3 assists and 3 blocks away from a Quadruple-Double while almost grabbing 20 boards!!
Kyler Lusche ended up leading us in scoring with 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds, a Double-Double of his own, while sitting halfway in the second quarter with foul trouble and playing limited minutes in the second half.
Braxton Miller added 13 points, 6 assists and 3 steals. Trevor Fuss also added 12 points and 5 assists while shooting 5/8 from the field and receiving a very efficient 3.63 VPS rating.
Bransyn Kiefer put in 10 points of his own, while also going 5/7 from the field and shutting down one of our opponents main scorers.
Wyatt Cords put in 8 points, 4 assists and 3 steals.
Others who contributed in putting points on the board were freshmen Luke Berger with 5 points and Greg Bingham with 2 points while Kaymen Lusche added 2 assists – one being a Lusche to Lusche connection and finish.
As a team we committed a season low of only 11 turnovers while providing 26 assists, which is a 2.36 A/TO ratio.
All in all it was a great night for Longhorns basketball and we are just so grateful for all those who supported us in person, watched on live stream or tuned in to our game on the local radio.
The Boys JV Team fell short, 23-29, for the first time this season in a 2 quarter game but they all played hard. Kaymen Lusche led the squad with 12 points, 6 coming from behind the arc. Greg Bingham added 6 points, Matias Sokac hit a 3 pointer, and Trey Cook's 2 made free throws.
Perkins County 56,
Kimball 42
Friday's game vs. Perkins County did not go as we had hoped but it was an opportunity to grow as a team and learn from our mistakes. We battled hard all game long, we were just unable to get into a rhythm and knock down shots when we needed to.
Highlights included Kyler Lusche's 17pts & 9rbs, Brandon Paxton's 12pts & 7rbs, Braxton Miller's 5pts, 6rbs, 3stls, while taking one charge and leading the team with a 1.28 VPS rating.
To round the scoring out, Ryker Behrend added 5pts and Trevor Fuss added 3pts along with 3 stls.
Wyatt Cords took a charge a on defense, while Bransyn Kiefer provided us with energy on defense when called upon.
All in all, we believe we played well enough to win. We just beat ourselves by missing too many shots that we normally make.
Kimball 48,
Morrill 39
We were fortunate enough to be able to play the next evening following our first loss of the season as we so desperately wanted to get back in that win column at home.
Morrill provided us with some unique challenges as they had tall players and some length on the back line of their zone while being a good three point shooting team. The game starting off with both teams trying to get a handle on what the other was trying to do and ended up 5-8 after the first quarter.
It wasn't until about 4 minutes left in the 2nd quarter that we really started pushing the ball up the floor in transition and getting those high percentage shots that we know win games. In the span of 3 minutes we were able to go on a 16-2 run and had a 10 point lead going into the half.
After halftime, though, the momentum seemed to swing back to Morrill as they were able to convert on 4 straight possessions of their own, hitting tough mid-range and contested threes to tie the score 25-25. We called time out to regroup as a team and the players responded by attacking the basket and regaining a 6 point lead at quarters end.
In the 4th, we were able to string together some runs that resulted in a 12-point lead only to see it swing down to 7 points as they continued to hit 3 threes from behind the arc in the quarter.
Fortunately, our players stayed the course and did not get rattled win it seemed as though Morrill could not miss. We continued to look for the open player until we saw an advantage and did our best to finish close to the rim.
Team highlights included a very efficient 2 quarter with a 7.13 VPS rating as a team, highest ever for 1 quarter. We also shot 83.3% eFG%, had 9 assists and 4 steals while only committing 1 turnover in that quarter.
Kyler Lusche lead us in points again with 13, 5reb, 3blk & a 1.30 VPS. Brandon Paxton: 12pts, 9reb, & a 1.47 VPS. Ryker Behrend: 7pts, 3ast, 2stl, & a 1.58 VPS. Trevor Fuss: 6pts, 9reb, 5ast, 2stl and a team high 3.63 VPS rating. Braxton Miller: 5pts, 6rpb, 9ast, & a 1.55 VPS. Wyatt Cords: 3pt.s Bransyn Kiefer :2pts while adding 3reb.
Boys JV vs Perkins Co. (L) 24-45. POINTS: Trey Cook (11), Landen Nunley (7), Greg Bingham (4), Sam Anderson (2).
Boys JV vs. Morrill (W) 44-37 POINTS: Kayman Lusche hit 5 threes on the night to finish with (21), Luke Berger (11), Landen Nunley (6), Trey Cook (2), Greg Bingham (2), Matias Sokac (2).