Western Nebraska Observer - Observations all along the line - Kimball & the Southern Panhandle First

A disappointing opening weekend for the Kimball High boy's as they opened the 2018-19 basketball season hosting their own 4 school tournament.With several members of their varsity team sitting in the stands behind the bench due to eligibility sanctions, coach Luke Dea and his staff were very short handed, and it cost them dearly.

In their first round game with the Morrill Lions, the Horns jumped out to a 7-0 lead with Jaren Winstrom hitting the first shot of the contest from the corner, Zane Anthony and Brady Kilgore finished off drives, and Izaac Reuter hit a free throw.Brayden Tyan, making his first varsity start, scored Kimball's next 8 points and Kimball led 15-5 at the quarter break.

Morrill won the 2nd quarter battle 10 to 5 to close the gap to 20-15 at half time as the Horns struggled at the foul line converting only 6 of 14 shots from the charity stripe in the opening half of play.Kimball held their own in the 3rd quarter as Tyan continued to shine with 9 more points and Izaac Reuter made some key plays.

The Lions were giving great effort and were trailing 34-28 entering the final period.Morrill took their first lead in the contest at 37-36 with 3:22 left in the game and closed it out by out scoring Kimball 18-5 in the final stanza for the 46-39 win.Lack of players was clearly the cause of this loss for the Horns.It hurt not having big Beau Hanks as he was home sick.Coach Dea had to go with first time starters Jaren Winstrom and Brayden Tyan, and got a lot of play early off the bench from senior Thomas Lenzen who sat out last season, and they gave good effort, as did returning starters from last season, Zane Anthony, Izaac Reuter, and Brady Kilgore.

Tyan, 6'2" junior, in his first varsity start, led Kimball with 21 points and also charted 7 rebounds.He was 8/14 at the line and had 1 trey.Reuter had 10 points and led the team in rebounds with 8 and steals with 4.Kilgore had 4 points, Winstrom 2, and Anthony 2.

A poor night of shooting as Kimball was 24% from the field going 12/50 from the field including 2/18 on 3 point shots, and were 13/25 at the foul line.In other team stats, they finished with 27 rebounds, 9 steals, 5 assists, 18 turnovers, and 13 fouls.

Morrill had 15 field goals including 2 treys, were 14/25 at the line, and had 21 fouls.They were led in scoring by Blake Lofink with 12, Keaton Robb 11, Tanner Whetham 8, and Jerry Tarin 7.

Kimball 15 5 14 5---39

Morrill 5 10 13 18---46

Coach Dea was able to get scoring out of 8 players as they won over Potter-Dix 60-16 in the consolation game Saturday.It was helpful to have Beau Hanks back on board alos, although he looked a bit weary yet.

Zane Anthony set the tone early with a 9 point first quarter and Kimball was up 15-4 despite shots not falling as they went into the 2nd period.The Horns out scored the Coyotes 21-5 to lead 36-0 at half time.It was more of the same the entire second half as coach Dea went as deep into his bench as he could with his limited numbers.

Anthony had 13 for Kimball with 1 trey, Reuter 10, Kilgore 9 with 1 trey, Tyan 7, Hanks 7, Winstrom 6, Lenzen 6, and freshman Thomas Muldoon 2.

The Horns still struggled with their shooting going 25/69 from the field for 36% and were 2/16 on 3 pointers.The foul shooting was better as they converted 8/12.They controlled the boards with 32 rebounds, had 24 steals, 2 blocks, 13 assists, 9 turnovers and 9 fouls.Anthony and Kilgore had 6 steals each to lead in that department while the rebounding was pretty even through out the lineup.

Potter-Dix had 6 field goals with 2 treys, were 2/6 at the line and had 12 fouls.Terell Gray had 4 points, Grant Hickman 3, Brandon Mendoza 3, Jared Anton 2, Anthony Tovar 2, and Sheign Krafczik 2.

The Kimball boys will host Perkins County tomorrow (Friday) night with the JV game at 4 and the varsity at 7 but because of the lack of numbers, the times for these games could be altered.Saturday Kimball is off to Morrill with boy's game times set for 3 and 6.

Kimball 15 21 18 6---60

Potter-Dix 4 5 4 5---16