Lady Longhorns third at Kimball Tourney

The Kimball High girls wound up second at their own four- team tournament they hosted this past weekend as the 2013-14 basketball season officially opened. After a sound showing Friday night, and win over Southeast, with Kimball winning 43-25, they went up against perhaps the best team they will face this season resulting in a 63-46 loss to Dundy County/ Stratton in the championship game.

The Lady Longhorns got off to a slow start Friday night and trailed 6-4 after the first quarter of play, but senior Shelby Vogel got the Kimball ladies going in the second period then she knocked down a trey, her second of the game, and tallied 7 second quarter points to put Kimball on top 14-9 at half time. In the fourth quarter, sophomore Danika Daum went inside and Laura Flores fed her four scoring assists and Vogel another one and along with a pair of treys she knocked down in the third period, the tall and talented Miss Daum ended up with 20 points after going scoreless in the first half. Daum also pulled 7 rebounds, had 2 steals, 2 assists and 1 block and her big second half play carried the Red to victory. Vogel in double figures scoring with 13 on 5/10 shooting from the field including her two treys. She also had 4 steals, 3 boards, 1 block and 1 assist. Kelly Green had 5 with a trey, Jessica Hanks 3 points along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists, Madison Biesecker 2, and Flores with 5 assists.

Kimball was 12/29 on two point field goals, 5/14 on three pointers, 4/7 at the line, had 25 rebounds, 8 steals, 15 assists, 2 blocks and 20 turnovers. Southeast out rebounded Kimball with 33 boards, were 6/13 at the line, 8/51 on two pointers, and 5/14 on three point tries. The had 7 players in the scoring columns led by Madison Pragnell with 6.

Coach Chauncey Pedersen commenting on the win said "I was pleased to get the win. We played better in the second half when we went to our zone. We shot the ball better, but we are still missing too many wide open lay ups. We did a better job of rebounding and executing the second half with Jessica (Hanks) and Danika (Daum) hitting the boards. Shelby and Kelly stepped up and we are still finding ourselves."

Dundy County/Stratton is a quality team for certain and simply out played the Lady Horns in the title game. They shot the ball very well from start to finish and out rebounded Kimball by 10. They out scored Kimball every period except the fourth and had a 21 point lead going into the final quarter. Jessica Hanks was the bright spot for Kimball in the first half and had 10 points by intermission including 6/9 foul shooting.

She ended up with 11 points going 7/11 at the line, had 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists. Danika Daum had a good second half and ended up with 12 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Kelly Green nailed 2 treys and had 8 points, Shelby Vogel had 8 points and 5 rebounds, and Laura Flores had 2.

Kimball shot 9/45 on two point fielders, 4/18 from beyond the are, 16/25 at the line, had 26 rebounds, 9 steals, 7 assists, 2 steals and 2 assists. Danika Daum had a good second half and ended up with 12 points and 10 rebounds for a double-double. Kelly Green nailed 2 treys and had 8 points, Shelby Vogel had 8 points and 5 rebounds, and Laura Flores had 2.

Kimball shot 9/45 on two point fielders, 4/18 from beyond the are, 16/25 at the line, had 26 rebounds, 9 steals, 7 assists, 1 blocked shot and only 14 turnovers. They were whistled for 15 fouls and the winners for 20.

Dundy County had 37 rebounds, 17/40 on 2 point field goals, 7/13 on 3 pointers, 8/13 foul. shooting. They had 10 players score with Colby Duvel high with 20 and Fayelee Sanford next with 13 including 4 treys. Nicole Kent had 9 points with 2 treys.

Kimball is still feeling their way after graduating six seniors from last year's team, but they will match up better this weekend when they travel to Grant Friday night and host Morrill Saturday, although they will have to have good efforts to pick up the wins. Jayvee game times at Grant are 4 p.m. with an early 2 p.m. start on Saturday at home.