Longhorns fall to Perkins County...win over Morrill

The Kimball High Longhorns were blasted 63-36 on the road at Perkins County Friday night, but came back to win at home over Morrill Saturday evening 57-44 and evened their early season mark at two wins and two losses as they head into the final weekend before the Christmas break.

The Kimball boys had a poor shooting night at Grant and lost to a good Plainsman club 63-36 with no one in double figure scoring for the Horns, led by Kole Bush with 8, including a pair of treys. Brady Kilgore had 6 points, Colton Mielke 5 with 1 trey, Zane Anthony 4, Jacob Withrow 4 with 1 trey, Beau Hanks 4, Austin Lulf 3 with 1 trey and Isaac Reuter 2. Perkins County's Josh Johnston led all scorers with 30 points, hitting 4 treys.

Kimball was a mere 1/2 at the line with 21 fouls. The winners were 14/28 at the line with 12 fouls. Kilgore and Reuter were Kimball's top rebounders with 6 each and Reuter led in steals with 4. Anthony was high in assists with 3. The Horns shot a poor 31% from the field and were 5 of 24 on 3 point attempts.

Perkins County

12 23 13 15 - 63

Kimball

9 2 16 9 - 36

Kimball got off to a slow start again on Saturday night as the visiting Lions broke out to an early 13-3 lead and were trailing 16-10 at the quarter break. The two clubs played even in the second period with Kimball outscoring Morrill 8-7 in the second period to close to 23-18 at half-time. The Horns started to take control the second half outscoring Morrill 14-9 in the 3rd period to knot the score at 32-32 heading into the final period, which Kimball dominated by outscoring the Lions 25-12 to secure the 57-44 victory.

Balanced scoring for Kimball, with 3 players in double figures, led by Sophomore Brendan Walker with 13, Brady Kilgore with 12, and Zane Anthony with 10, including Kimball's lone trey. Colton Mielke and Isaac Reuter both with 8 points, Beau Hanks 4 and Corey Travis 2, with 7 in the scoring columns for the Horns. The Horns were still struggling with scoring as they shot 20/57 from the field for 35% and were 16/35 at the foul line. To their credit, they showed good effort and hustle and hit the boards for 34 rebounds, including 16 offensive. Reuter was top rebounder with 11, while Kilgore and Travis were high in steals with 4 each.

Morrill also had 7 players score, led by D'Marco Ayala with 13, including 2 treys, Keaton Robb with 12 and 1 trey and Tanner Whetham with 7 and 1 trey. The Lions were 4/9 at the foul line with 24 fouls, compared to 14 for Kimball.

With the win Saturday, Kimball evened their record at 2-2 with a pair of road trips facing them this weekend before the Christmas break. Friday they travel to Hershey for JV games, starting at 3:30, followed by varsity contests. Saturday they go to Bayard for JV games beginning at 2 p.m., followed by the varsity games.

Morrill 16 7 9 12 - 44

Kimball 10 8 14 25 - 57