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

Kimball Girls Lose To South Platte, Chase County

A tough week for the Kimball High girls as they suffered losses to South Platte and Chase County dropping their season record to 3 wins and 5 losses. In a Tuesday night road game to Big Springs the Lady Longhorns lost to South Platte 52-48 and then fell Saturday at home to a powerful Chase County club 68-39.

SOUTH PLATTE 52,

Kimball 48

The loss to South Platte was a tough one to swallow as the Kimball girls had a 2 point lead going into the final quarter but got outscored 18-12 in the final period. “We had a good effort against a good South Platte club” said Coach Chauncey Pedersen. “We shot the ball well, had a lot of good assists, but had some foul trouble that hurt us” Pedersen said.

Sam Bemis and Carli Wurdeman both fouled out, but before Wurdeman left the game late with her 5th foul she poured in 22 points on a solid night of shooting where she was 8/12 from the field including 3/4 from 3 point range and 3/5 at the foul line. Not a good night shooting for Bemis however as she attempted only 1 shot the entire game but she did lead the team in rebounds with 10 and shared high assists with Megan Spicer with 4 each. Payton Wise came off the bench to score double figures with 10, Spicer had 7, Katie Heeg 4 along with 5 rebounds, Jenna Greenwood 3, and Sydney Biesecker 2. Spicer also led in steals with 4.

In team stats, Kimball was 17/37 from the field for 46% going 3/10 on treys and were 11/19 at the foul line for 58%. They pulled 29 rebounds including 9 offensive, had 7 steals, 14 assists, 25 turnovers, and 21 fouls.

Autumn Dickmander led South Platte scoring with 18 points as the winners had 7 girls in the scoring columns.

Kimball 9 14 13 12 – 48

S. Platte 12 12 10 18 – 52

CHASE COUNTY 68, Kimball 39

The Chase County High girls from Imperial brought a winning record to Kimball and left with one more win to run their mark to 6-2. The Lady Longhorns of Imperial are led by a talented senior guard, Mallie McNair, who is being recruited by college coaches and on this night she set a new Imperial school single game scoring record of 36 points! Her younger sister Bryn, joins her in the starting lineup, as a freshman.

Megan Spicer opened the scoring with a 3 pointer and that would be the only time Kimball led in the contest.

A clock problem at the officials counter showed up with 3:04 left in the opening quarter causing PA announcer Greg Robinson, to do dual duties and inform everyone how much time was left by use of a tablet and smart phone. At halftime Kimball Activities Director Ken Smith traded out clocks.

Not a lot of positives for Kimball although they did hit the boards hard pulling 39 rebounds including 21 offensive. “We had a lot of rebounds but unfortunately we also had a lot of rebound shots that we didn’t convert” said Coach Pedersen. The Lady Horns of Kimball shot only 24% from the field making 12 of 49 attempts from the field and going 5/21 on 3 point tries along with 10/19 at the foul line for 53%. They also charted 10 steals, 7 steals, 13 fouls, and 27 turnovers.

Sydney Biesecker was Kimball’s only double digit scorer with 10 points. Spicer ended with 9 points and 4 steals, Sam Bemis had 8 points, 7 rebounds and a team high 5 steals. Carli Wurdeman had 5 points with 1 trey, 8 rebounds and 3 assists. Jenna Greenwood had 4 points and 6 rebounds, Payton Wise 2 points, and Amy Birkhofer 1.

This week’s schedule called for Kimball to play at Potter-Dix this past Tuesday, and to host Bridgeport on Friday night and Gordon-Rushville on Saturday. The SPVA Tournament play begins Monday night for the girls but the seedings were not to be announced until today (Wednesday). It would appear that the Kimball girls might be the number 4 seed and host Hershey in their first round game.

Kimball 11 7 13 8 – 39

Chase 20 21 15 12 – 68