Western Nebraska Observer - Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

The Kimball Lady Longhorns won out 49-31 over Maxwell in first round play of the SPVA Conference basketball tournament in a contest played at Kimball's home court Tuesday evening, and advance now into the winners bracket where they will face Chase County, a 54-31 winner over Bridgeport in the other lower bracket first round pairing on Monday.

Kimball is the #2 seed in the 8 school bracket while Maxwell is the #7 seed. Chase County was the #6 seed and upset #3 seed Bridgeport for their advancement into the winners bracket. Kimball and Chase County, a team Kimball defeated 42-35 on January 10th in Imperial, will tangle Friday night at North Platte Community College in the 8 p.m. central time game, 7 p.m. Kimball time.

The Kimball ladies got off to a sluggish start falling behind 8-0 before Jessica Hanks nailed a trey to take the lid off the basket and get the Lady Horns rolling. Led by 6'2" post Josie Cox, the Lady Wildcats out rebounded Kimball 12 to 4 in the first period, but to Kimball's credit, they had no turnovers in that opening period, and with Alex Reader coming off the bench to nail back to back treys, and Danika Daum hitting yet another to give Kimball 4 from beyond the arc, Kimball held a 14-8 lead at the quarter break.

The second period was a low scoring affair with Kimball getting 4 more points from Hanks and a basket from Madison Biesecker for their 6 points and the defense tightened to hold Maxwell to just 4 as Kimball led 20-12 at half time. As of late, Kimball has been a second half team and they were again in this win as they scored 29 points in the second half and got up to as much as a 21 point margin late.

Jessica Hanks with an all around solid game scoring 13 points shooting 4/7 from the field and 2/3 on 3 point fielders, 3/4 at the foul line, had 5 rebounds, 5 steals and 2 assists. Danika Daum matched Hanks for scoring honors with 13 going 5/26 from the field and 1/12 on treys along with 2/2 foul shooting, had 4 rebounds, 5 steals, and 1 assist and 1 block. Madison Biesecker finished with 9 points, 5 rebounds, 3 steals, and a game high 6 assists plus a block. Alex Reader chipped in with 8 points going 2/3 on 3 point attempts, Kailey Dickerson had 4 points, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and an assist, and Arica McCloud had 2 along with 4 rebounds and a steal.

In team stats, Kimball shot 8/13 at the line, 13/47 on 2 point field goals, 5/21 on 3 pointers, had 15 offensive and 17 defensive rebounds for 32 total, 18 steals, 12 assists, and 2 blocked shots. They held their turnovers to a mere 8 for the game and their fouls to 11.

Maxwell ended up with 40 rebounds, were 9/10 at the line, 11/46 from the field and 0/4 on 3 point attempts and also had 12 fouls called. The big center, Josie Cox, shared team scoring honors with Tracy Blake with 8 each with no one in double figures for the Lady Wildcats.

Coach Chauncey Pedersen said, "We had that sluggish start but we got things figured out and played good defense I felt after that. They didn't pressure us much so we took care of the ball well. Jessica Hanks really stepped up for us tonight."

Score by quarter

Kimball 14 6 15 14 - 49

Maxwell 8 4 8 11 - 31