Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Kimball's Colton Stull, left, guards a Mitchell player during last Friday's game. Stull led the Longhorns with 21 points as they won, 53-40.
Colton Stull rang the bell for 21 points in sparking the Kimball High boys to a 53-40 win at Mitchell Friday night.
With the win in the final regular season contest for both teams, Kimball avenged two earlier losses to the Tigers, including a 43-40 overtime loss that kept the Horns out of advancing in the Western Trails Conference Tournament and a chance to play two more contests at Cougar Palace.
Stull came out firing from the get go as the senior point guard hit three consecutive treys in the opening quarter to keep pace with the host team as the score was tied at 11-11 after the first period of play. Stull hit his fourth 3 pointer on an off balance shot with the ball in flight when the buzzer sounded, and his spectacular shot that ended first half play knotted the score once again at 26-26. Stull got his fifth trey, plus a long 2 point field goal just inside the arc and a free throw for half of Kimball's third quarter scoring as they went up 36-31 going into the fourth period. Kimball outscored Mitchell 17-9 in the fourth quarter to put the game away with Stull making the final 2 points at the free throw line.
Tyler Magninie also hit double figure scoring with 12 and had 2 treys. Michael Ferguson had 7 points and 7 rebounds. Jaden Withrow had 7 points with 1 trey, Jonathon Withrow 4 points along with 7 steals and 2 assists, and Angel Flores 2 points.
A highlight in the team stats was a season low of only 6 turnovers with just 1 in the second half. Kimball was 9/18 at the foul line, had 12 fouls, was 10/37 on 2 point field goals and 8/21 on 3 pointers. They also charted 12 steals, 6 assists and 21 rebounds.
Mitchell won the battle on the boards with 34 rebounds, had 15 fouls, was 1/5 at the foul line, 15/28 on 2 point field goals, and 3/14 on 3 pointers. Joe Pieper, a 6'5" sophomore, led Mitchell scoring with 12, Antonio Barrios was held to just 9, Creighton Reichert had 6, Alex Morales 6, B. Cleveland 4, Chase Watson 3.
With the win over Mitchell, Kimball ran their season record to 6-13 and was the number 4 seed in the C2-l2 sub-district tournament that got underway this past Tuesday in Gering where they were to face number one seed Hemingford. Bridgeport, the number two seed went up against number 3 seed Bayard. The two winners will play tonight (Thursday) back at Gering with a 7 p.m. tip time.
Score by quarter
Kimball 11 15 10 17 - 53
Mitchell 11 15 5 9 - 40
The Kimball junior varsity set the tone for the night with an earlier 51-44 win to end their season at 8-6. Tyler Magninie was high with 14 with 2 treys, Trent Rutledge had 11, Jordan Greenwood 8, Jaden Withrow 7, Jaicob Cole 3 with his trey, Kole Bush 2, Ethan Land 3.