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

Horns come up short for the weekend

Another tough weekend for the Kimball High Boys Basketball Team with losses to Sutherland and North Platte St Pats. On Friday night at home, it looked like the Horns were going to reap the win only to see it slip away in the closing minutes 50-42. On Saturday night they were at Both Platte to face the St Pats Irish and once again gave up 50 points losing 50-32. Their record now stands at 4 wins and 11 losses as they head into this week's Western Trails Conference Tournament play.

The Horns came out strong Friday night in front of a good Kimball fan turnout and led 10-9 at the quarter break and 27-22 at half time. It helps greatly when the shots are on target and Kimball was enjoying a better shooting night the first half. Isaac Reuter had 12 of his team high 14 points in the first half play. The Horns hit 3 of their 5 treys in the first half. Then the second half play began and the shots quit falling with the visiting Sailors out-scoring Kimball 28-15 in second half play.

Ryan Richardson, 5'10" junior guard, took control of the game late, converting 6 of 6 free throws in the final 25 seconds and led all scorers with 26, including 2 treys and 8/11 foul shooting. Brady Kilgore had given Kimball a 40-38 lead with 2 minutes to play, but Richardson tied it up at 40 with a strong move to the basket and a few seconds later Kimball had a very questionable technical foul call when Brendan Walker inadvertently hIt the backboard after tripping a Sutherland shot, after he was run over by the shooter with no offensive foul call.

The winners were 14/20 at the line with 7 fouls. Kimball was 7/10 at the line with 16 fouls. Kimball hits 5 treys on the night with Reuter high with 14 points and 1 trey. Walker had 10 points and 1 trey, Zane Anthony and Corey Travis both with 2 points. Kimball shot only 29% from the field, but were 70% at the line. They pulled 28 rebounds with Beau Hanks high with 8 and Reuter charting 7. Kilgore had 5 rebounds and 5 steals. Walker was 4 and 4. A pretty good night turnover-wise with only 12 for the Horns. Another good effort with hustle and effort.

Kimball 10 17 8 7---42

Sutherland 9 13 14 1---50

Coach Luke Dea had praise for the effort of his Longhorns for their play at a very good St. Pats team Saturday night as they were threatening an upset of the highly touted Irish going into the 4th and final period trailing by a mere 2 points before getting out-scored 19-3 in the final 8 minutes to lose 50-32.

Once again not a real good shooting performance for the Horns going 32% from the field and 45% at the line where they were 5 of 11. They were also 3/15 on trey attempts. In other categories, Kimball had 15 turnovers, 10 steals, 19 rebounds and 19 fouls.

Brendan Walker was high scorer for the Horns with 9 including 1 trey and was top rebounder with 7. Zane Anthony had 5 points with 1 trey and led in steals with 3. Travis had 5, Hanks 4, Reuter 4, Mielke 3, with a trey, and Kilgore 2.

Once again, very good effort by the Kimball team, but, once again, not able to finish it out. They move into WTC Conference Tournament play this week and will travel to Bridgeport tonight (Thursday) to face the number 2 seed Bridgeport Bulldogs in a 6:30p.m. start time. First round winners advance to play Friday and Saturday at Cougar Palace in Scottsbluff while 1st round losers are eliminated.

Kimball 7 12 10 3 - 32

St. Pats 13 7 11 19 - 50