Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
As Kimball nears the end of another successful season of basketball, these Lady Longhorns prepare for their next adventure. Pictured from left are seniors, Kayla Schoenemann, Arica McCloud, Madison Biesecker, Danika Daum, Myriah Tyan, Kailey Dickerson and Guro Litlere, foreign exchange student.
Kate Reader drives to the basket during play at Pine Bluffs this past weekend. The freshman standout has been a key part of the success of the Lady Longhorns this season.
The Kimball High Lady Longhorns stayed close early but wore down later in a 64-50 loss to visiting Hemingford this past Friday night. It was the latest in a 3-game losing streak that has occurred since the injury to Kimball's leading scorer, Danika Daum, who went down with a foot injury in the closing minutes of a semi final win over Mitchell in Western Trails Conference Tournament play.
The Lady Horns actually held a 13-12 lead at the first quarter break and was still on top 29-28 at half time. Limited to a 6 player rotation instead of the 7 player rotation coach Chauncey Pedersen has used successfully through the season while accumulating a 17-3 record, Kimball couldn't keep the pace late as Hemingford used their depth to pull ahead outscoring the Horns by 20 in second half play.
Alex Reader hit a pair of treys and Madison Biesecker swished another 3 pointer in first quarter play, and Reader hit 2 more treys in the second quarter as sister Kate Reader accounted for 8 second period points to give Kimball the half time lead. Kailey Dickerson also had a big first half with 4 points and some key plays. Arica McCloud hit a trey and added 5 points in the third period, but Hemingford's Faith Rohrbouck had a 12 point quarter to put the Lady Bobcats up 49-43 going into the fourth period and hit another 7 in the final 8 minutes of play ending up with 21 points to take game scoring honors and pace the winners.
The winners had big numbers from their top three as Natalie Gasseling had 18 and Brooke Turek 17. Emily Hansen added 6 and Kaitlyn Kumpf 2 to account for the winner's scoring.
In team stats, Hemingford had 12 fouls, were 12/16 at the foul line, 4/16 on 3 pointers, 20/48 on 2 pointers, and pulled 39 rebounds.
Kimball was out-boarded by 15 as the Lady Horns ended up with 13 offensive and 11 defensive rebounds, had 12 fouls, 14 turnovers, 11 steals, 9 assists, 1 block, were 12/17 at the line, 6/30 on 3 point field goals, and 10/32 on 2 point attempts.
Kate Reader led Kimball scoring with 15 on 5/10 field goal shooting and 5/6 at the foul line. She also pulled 4 rebounds, had 3 steals, an assist and a block. Alex Reader had 4 treys and 14 points with 3 rebounds and 3 assists. McCloud ended with 7 points with 1 trey plus 6 rebounds. Biesecker had 5 points with 1 trey, a team high 7 rebounds and 4 assists along with 2 steals. Dickerson had 4 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals and an assist. Myriah Tyan had 4 points on 2/3 shooting, and Hannah Biesecker chipped in with 1 point.
With the 3 consecutive losses since Daum's injury, the Kimball ladies will take a 17-6 record into C-l sub-district play at Alliance where they were to clash with Mitchell in first round play this past Tuesday evening.
Kimball 13 16 14 7 – 50
Hemingford 12 16 21 15 – 64