Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

Lady Longhorns fall to Mitchell in sub-district play

The Kimball High Lady Longhorns saw their season come to an end with a 59-47 loss in first round sub-district tournament play at Alliance this past week. With the loss, their hopes and plans for a trip to the state tournament also went out the door. It also brought to a close one of the better seasons for the Kimball High girls in quite a few seasons as they ended up with a win-loss record of 17-7, losing their final four games in a row.

In regards to losses, when senior Danika Daum went out with a foot injury in the closing minutes of the Western Trails Conference Tournament, it left a gaping loss of her presence in the Kimball lineup where she had been a starter for four years and the Lady Horns top scorer and rebounder. Coach Chauncey Pedersen had to plan his game strategy a lot differently without the six foot senior standout available.

Kimball met up with Mitchell in first round play of the sub-district held at Alliance, and held their own early trailing 14-10 after the first period of play, 28-22 at half time, and 40-34 after three quarters, but simply couldn’t get over the hump and take control of the fast-paced and pressure defense of the Lady Tigers. Just a week earlier Kimball won over Mitchell in WTC Tournament play, and the two teams ended up splitting the season play at 2-2 in their four encounters with Kimball winning the last two prior to the sub-district loss.

“It leaves kind of a bitter taste in our mouths knowing what could have been had we had Danika and been completely healthy,” said coach Chauncey Pedersen.

Mitchell went on to win over top seeded Chadron 45-36 in the sub-district championship game advancing the Lady Tigers into a district playoff with Hershey. At the time of this writing, it appeared that Chadron could also still be in contention for the state tournament via a wild card.

Sophomore Alex Reader topped Kimball scoring with 18 points hitting 5 treys. She also had 3 rebounds, 3 steals and 1 assist. Kimball had 7 players in the scoring columns with Kate Reader scoring 9 points and pulling 7 rebounds. Madison Biesecker had 8 points with 1 trey. Arica McCloud had 5 points with a trey and 8 rebounds. Kailey Dickerson nailed a trey and had 3 points, Myriah Tyan had a trey and 3 points, and Hannah Biesecker had 1 point.

In team stats, the Horns had 20 fouls, 7 turnovers, 7 steals, 4 assists, shot a dismal 12/23 at the foul line, were 9/22 on 3 point field goal attempts and only 4/38 on 2 point field goal tries. Mitchell dominated on the boards pulling 37 rebounds to 24 for Kimball. Mitchell had 15 fouls, shot 17/27 at the foul line, 2/9 on 3 pointers, and 18/46 on 2 pointers.

The winners were led in scoring by 6’3” freshman post Keyana Wilfred with 17 points. Celeste Cardona had 14, Jori Peters 9, Madison Watson 7, Anabelle Gillen 6, Kenzey Kanno 6.

While Kimball will lose 5 seniors to graduation, Mitchell returns all of their players with no seniors on the roster.

The Lady Tigers will be a force to reckon with for the next few seasons. Kimball will miss the solid play of this year’s senior group, but Coach Pedersen is already planning for next season and has two starters back in the Reader sisters.

Mitchell 14 14 12 19---59

Kimball 10 12 12 13---47

 
 
Rendered 03/28/2024 08:20