Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First
Brandon Barker goes to the basket during a game earlier this season. Barker was one of the leaders for the Longhorns' efforts against the Mitchell Tigers this last week.
The regular season closed out on a losing note for the Kimball High boys as they lost at Mitchell Friday night 64-58. The loss leaves Kimball at 12-9 in the win/loss column heading into this week's sub-district tournament play that began this past Tuesday in Sidney.
Behind the ten point scoring of 6'7" senior Joe Pieper, Mitchell jumped out to a 20-8 first quarter lead, but when Pieper picked up two quick fouls and went to the bench, the Horns battled back to outscore the hosting Tigers 21-15 in the second period and closed to within 35-29 by half time.
Pieper returned to start the third quarter and promptly scored nine points to boost the Tigers back to a 55-41 lead after three quarters of play. To their credit, the Horns were not ready to concede a loss and battled hard to come back in the final period, outscoring Mitchell 17-9, but free throws spelled the outcome of this one as the winners shot 40 free throws to 16 for Kimball, making 20 to Kimball's 10! The officials whistled 27 fouls on Kimball and 17 on Mitchell.
With a little over two minutes left, Brady Kilgore scored on a drive to the basket, then stole the ball on the inbound pass, was fouled, but was hurt on the play causing him to check out of the lineup. Ed Barnes checked in and shot the free throws for Kilgore, making both, to close the score to 60-58 with 1:50 to play. The Tigers hit four more free throws to close out the game.
A good, hustling effort by the much shorter Kimball team with Jaden Withrow and Brandon Barker both finishing with ten points and both hitting one trey on the night. Barker also pulled five rebounds to share the team lead with Colton Mielke and Izaac Reuter. Mielke had weight points with two treys. Barnes had eight points, Reuter seven, Kilgore six, Zane Anthony five and Corey Travis four as eight Longhorns got into the scoring act for Kimball.
In team stats, Kimball was 22/65 from the field and only 4/26 on three point tries, 10/16 at the line, had 27 rebounds, three blocks, nine steals, six assists, 16 turnovers and 27 fouls.
Mitchell was 21/54 from the field and 2/11 on three pointers, 20/40 at the line and had 42 rebounds. They were led by Pieper with 21, Dylan Lower with 12 and Riley Reisig with 11. The Tigers have some talented young freshman players including another Pieper as Jonathan Pieper is already listed at 6'6".
Mitchell 20 15 20 9 – 64
Kimball 8 21 12 17 – 58
Mitchell also won the junior varsity game 53-44. A good night for Kole Bush who led Kimball with 14 points with one trey. Brady Kilgore had seven, Grant Hickman five with one trey, Brendan Walker and Corey Travis five each, Beau Hanks, Zane Anthony and Jacob Withrow two each. The Kimball junior varsity team finished the season with a record of 7-5.