Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Angel Flores shows off his ball handling skills.
The only way to shoot over 6'5" Joe Pieper of Mitchell is to get off the ground and Kimball's Jordan Greenwood does just that in getting his shot from the corner up and away during first round play of the WTC Tournament held at the Kimball site.
Trent Rutledge grabs a rebound from Mitchell opponents waiting clutches
Gordon-Rushville captured the championship of the Western Trails Conference Boy's Division Tournament in a surprise upset of number one seed Bridgeport in the title game, winning 40-34. Gordon-Rushville was the number three seed and won their title by defeating Bayard 65-37 in first round play and taking out number two seed Hemingford 68-44 in semi final action. Hemingford won over Morrill 61-30 in first round play and then held on to win over Mitchell 38-35 to claim third place honors.
Kimball entered WTC Tournament play as the number four seed and hosted number five seed Mitchell in first round play but lost their opportunity to advance into additional play at Cougar Palace when they fell to Mitchell 50-38. The Horns had won over the Tigers 70-55 back in early January on the Mitchell court. These two teams will clash one more time in regular season play on February 19 at Kimball.
Kimball got off to a good start over the visiting Tigers behind some red hot shooting by senior Tyler Magninie who hit his first 4 shots and was 4 of 5 from the field in the first quarter of play for 9 points and Kimball led 14-9 at the quarter break. Mitchell scored the first 9 points of the second period and at half time led 22-20 out scoring the Horns 13-6 in second quarter play.
Mitchell nailed a questionable long shot at the buzzer of the third period to take them into the fourth period leading 33-29, and then out scored the local club 17-9 in the final period to secure the victory and advance them selves into the semi final play in Scottsbluff on Friday.
Magninie led all scorers with 19 points on 8/14 shooting from the field going 3/7 on 3 point attempts. He also pulled 4 rebounds, had 3 steals and an assist. Jaden Withrow tallied 9 points with 1 trey and had 4 rebounds. Trent Rutledge had 5 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists. Jordan Greenwood had 5 points with 1 trey. Kimball had only four scorers on the night but Angel Flores had good stats with his 5 steals and 3 assists.
Not a good night for the Horns as they tried to match up with the taller Mitchell club. Mitchell doubled the rebounds on Kimball with 28 to the Horn's 14. The winners were 22/38 from the field going 0/4 on 3 point attempts and were 6/10 at the foul line. They had only 8 fouls called on them.
Kimball had 13 fouls, 16 turnovers, were 5/10 at the line, 14/51 from the field and only 5/24 on 3 pointers. They pulled 5 offensive and 9 defensive boards, had 14 steals, and 10 assists. Like usual, they gave an aggressive effort as evidenced by their 14 steals, but had a cold night shooting, and couldn't match up in rebounding.
Mitchell was led in scoring by a pair of 6'3" inside players with Cleveland Burnett charted with 14 points and Colby Eberspecher with 12. They had 7 players score with Joe Pieper, 6'5" junior with 8, Chase Watson, Seth Marcoe, Jaden Snyder, and Dylan Lower all with 4 points each.
While first round winners got two more games of tournament play, first round losers got only one game of tournament action.
Kimball travelled to Pine Bluffs this past Tuesday night, and will host Hemingford this Friday night with JV games set for 4 p.m., followed by the girl's varsity contest at 5:30 and boy's varsity at 7 p.m. As mentioned, they close out the regular season with Mitchell on the Kimball court on February 19 before moving into sub-district tournament play.
Kimball 14 6 9 9---38
Mitchell 9 13 11 17---50
