Kimball girls go 2-1 past week

A heart-breaking loss, a heart-thumping win, and a somewhat easier win gave the Kimball High Lady Longhorns a record of two wins and 1 loss in last week's competition.

It started with the heart breaking 1 point loss at home on a Tuesday evening to a solid Mitchell club with the visiting Lady Tigers prevailing 44-43, followed by the ultra exciting 1 point win on the road at class B Sidney with the Lady Horns coming out on top 36-35, and wound up with a 51-43 victory on Friday night at Pine Bluffs. After the three game busy week, the Kimball ladies are now 6-3 with a pair of home games facing them this weekend before they move into the South Platte Valley Association conference tournament in North Platte beginning Monday.

Coming off the Holiday break where Kimball High rested and did not participate in any Holiday tournaments, the Lady Horns came out against Mitchell with perhaps the best quarter of basketball by a Kimball High girls' team in quite some time. Kelly Green got the contest underway with a 3 point fielder, Danika Daum followed with a trey of her own, and Shelby Vogel canned another from beyond the arc and Kimball jumped out to a 15-6 lead and was up 19-12 at the first quarter break. They had made 5/7 two point attempts and 3/7 three point tries and had charted only 3 turnovers at this stage of the game.

To start the second quarter, Kimball gave up 6 quick points to allow Mitchell to close to 19-18 before the home team ran off 6 unanswered points and the two clubs battled even with each scoring 8 points leaving Kimball in the lead at 27-20 at half time, Daum and Vogel both had 11 points at intermission and Jessica Hanks had been busy on the boards with 6 rebounds. Kelly Green had picked up her 3rd foul early in the 2nd quarter and had to sit out.

Momentum started to switch to the Lady Tigers in the 3rd period as they outscored Kimball 13-8 and trailed Kimball 35-33 to begin the fourth period of play. A couple of baskets by Daum kept Kimball ahead 39-36, but Mitchell took the lead at 42-39 after Taylor Peters hit a long shot and scored on a steal. Kelly Green came back with a layin basket and Hanks hit a 15 footer to give Kimball back the lead at 43-42. Kimball lost focus on defense allowing a wide open basket by Kady Lower underneath her own basket and coach Chauncey Pedersen called time out quickly with 6.5 seconds left. Kimball set up a play calling for a long down court pass and a pass to a streaking Miss Daum but Mitchell hustled back and came up with an interception that sealed the win.

It was a classic girls' basketball game, played well by both teams. "We felt our game plan was good. We just lost focus at times and it cost us the win" said coach Pedersen. "We had a good first half but I didn't feel we played real well the second half. We needed more balance. Mitchell is a good team," Pedersen said.

The difference was at the foul line where Mitchell hit 5 of 8 and Kimball was 1 of 4. Kimball was whistled for 11 fouls and Mitchell for 6. The rebounding was close with Mitchell charted with 27 and Kimball with 26. Mitchell was 19/51 on field goals going 1/8 on three pointers. Kimball was 19/52 from the field and 4/14 on three pointers. Kimball also charted 11 assists and 8 steals along with 17 turnovers.

Shelby Vogel led Kimball scoring with 16 and had 3 steals and 2 assists. Danika Daum had 15 points along with 10 rebounds for a double-double, plus 3 steals and 2 assists. Jessica Hanks had 5 points and 7 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal. Kelly Green 5 points, and Brooke Hager 2 points and 4 rebounds.

Taylor Peters was high for Mitchell with 15, Kady Lower had 12, Aspen Reifschneider 11, McKenna Zulkoski 4, and Celeste Cardona 2.

After the emotional loss to Mitchell it was a question mark how Kimball would come back against a very good Class B Sidney team on the road two days later. They answered that question with another gutsy performance and the hang-on 1 point win.

Trailing 8-6, Kimball closed out the opening quarter with Kelly Green making a pair of layin baskets and Danika Daum making a solid move inside for a score and the Lady Horns led 12-8 at the quarter break. It stayed close in the second period with Green swishing a trey and scoring on a drive, and Daum tied it at 21-21 with a pair of free throws, but Katelin Cole hit a long trey at the buzzer to put the home team on top 24-21 at half time. Green had 9 and Daum 8 points at the intermission. Laura Flores had 3 fouls. Coach Pedersen was doing a lot of subbing and got good play off the bench with Madison Biesecker really shining.

A low scoring third period with Kimball netting 6 points and Sidney 4. Vogel scored off a rebound and a strong inside move and Green on a layin off a Daum feed, and Sidney was up 28-27 entering the fourth quarter.

The fourth period opened with Daum hitting a 17 footer off a pass from Vogel, and then nailing a three pointer off a feed from Flores. Vogel made a free throw and Green scored on a rebound put-back. Vogel hit another free throw with :27 seconds remaining to put Kimball up 36-32, but Cole nailed another 3 pointer with :18 seconds showing to close to 36-35. When Daum missed on the front end of a one and one with 10 seconds left, Sidney started down court after rebounding but Brooke Hager came up with one of the key plays of the game as she stepped in front of a Raider pass and Vogel ended up fouled, but again the Horns missed on the foul shot with 3.7 seconds left. Sidney called time and then fired a long throw down court that Kelly Green intercepted to end the contest.

Daum and Green shared scoring honors for Kimball with 13 points each and both hitting a trey. Daum had 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 block. Green had 8 rebounds, 3 steals and an assist only four players scored for Kimball with Vogel netting 8 along with 7 rebounds and an assist, and Biesecker with 2 points, 2 rebounds and 1 assist. Flores had 3 rebounds and 2 assists and fouled out with 1:24 left. Brooke Hager had 4 steals and 2 rebounds.

In team stats Kimball was 15/43 from the field going 2/2 on three pointers, 4/10 at the line, had 8 steals, 9 assists, and 1 blocked shot. Kimball had 19 turnovers and both clubs charted 30 rebounds.

Sidney shot 14/46 from the field going 4/17 on three point attempts, and 3/9 at the foul line. Scoring for Sidney saw Cole with 13, Sarah Mahr 9, Abbi Porter 6, Madi Stafford 4, Cody Rowley 3, and Emily Mahr 2.

Coach Pedersen commented on the Sidney win "This was a good come back win against a good team. Kelly (Green) had one of her better games, and Madison (Biesecker) and Laura (Flores) gave us good play off the bench."

For the third time this past week, the Kimball girls found themselves up against a very young, but talented Pine Bluffs ball club that is going to be one to be reckoned with in the next few years for certain. Behind the scoring of Green and Vogel, Kimball took an 11-7 lead at the quarter break, and increased it to 27-17 by half time with five different players getting into the scoring act in the 2nd period. This was a game where Kimball played good-ball, bad-ball causing coach Pedersen much frustration as again they would lose focus on the game plan, bringing about time outs to discuss the plans over and over.

At times the Lady Hornets would have four freshmen in the lineup, and they certainly are skilled younger players. Pine ended up shooting 17/63 from the field going 3/10 on three pointers, were 6/19 at the line, had 17 fouls, and 25 rebounds. They were led in scoring by senior Andrea Baker with 10, freshman Jadyn Golding, who played her junior high ball at Kimball before transferring had 8, Dana Mullins 5, and Jessica Saavedra 5 to top the Lady Hornet scoring.

Kimball had 7 players in the scoring columns in the win, something coach Pedersen has been looking for. Daum was high with 14 going 4/4 at the line, had 8 rebounds, 3 steals and 4 blocks. Vogel had 9 and was 5/6 at the line plus 8 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 assists. Hager had 7 points with a trey and 4/6 foul shooting, Flores 6 going 3/3 from the floor, Green 6 with 6 rebounds, Biesecker 5, Hanks 4 along with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal. .

In team stats Kimball amassed 33 turnovers! They shot 19/33 at the line, had 16 fouls with Pine charted with 17. Kimball was 15/43 from the field going 2/8 on three pointers, had 35 rebounds, 12 steals, 9 assists and 4 blocks. Coach Pedersen was happy with the involvement of more players in the win at Pine. "We had 7 girls score 4 or more points and this is what I keep looking for. We need to continue to work hard and to work towards the team balance," he said.

A pair of home games this weekend with Bridgeport on Friday night with JV game time 4 p.m. and girl's varsity at 5:30. Saturday Gordon-Rushville comes to town for games at 2 and 3:30 p.m. Monday the SPVA conference tournament at the North Platte Community College gymnasium but the seeding and brackets had not been set in time for publishing. Check other daily sources for game time on Monday.