Longhorns Lose By Point, But Make A Point

The Longhorn boys, 8-5 on the season, close out January with games against visiting Sutherland at 7 p.m. today, Jan. 25, and 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 27, at North Platte St. Pat's.

Then the Horns open the WTC tournament at home 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 1, as a No. 3 seed against No. 6 Bayard. The winner advances to a 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, game at WNCC against the victor of the contest between No. 2 Mitchell and No. 7 Gordon-Rushville.

Here's a look at the SPVA games against Hershey and Chase County.

Hershey 49,

Kimball 48

Tuesday's contest was a tough loss for our team in more ways than one. Tied 23-23, or so we thought going into the half time break, the score was then changed to 23-22 while we and the officials were in the locker room.  Once we emerged back onto the court and saw that we were no longer tied, the explanation we were given from the table was that the scorebooks only showed we had 22 points. Without knowledge of when the discrepancy happened it would have been difficult for us to claim otherwise, so we moved on to prepare for the next half. Back and forth the game went, with neither team gaining more than a 5 point advantage.   Both teams battled hard and hit big shots, however, in the end we came up short on the final scoreboard, 49-48. It was not until receiving the film on our way back that we were able to figure out what actually happened, and unfortunately one of our 3 pointers, ruled a 3 by the referees,  was only recorded in the official book as a 2. This means that we actually scored 49 points in the game, but officially ended with 48.

One point losses are always difficult and can play with your mind in many ways. However, this one stung a little extra. We contacted the state to see if anything could be done, or at the very least, if they could give us any advice on how to help us mitigate the chances of this ever happening to our team again. They made a few suggestions, however, and said this instance was a very rare occurrence and that there probably was not much we could have done in the end.

Unfortunately human error happens all the time in sports, workplaces, or just in our everyday lives. We know that nothing was done intentionally and that we will bounce back even stronger for having gone through the experience. Our team still has many games left on the schedule so fortunately we will be able to set our sights on our next opponent quickly, hopefully coming out with just a little more of an edge. Our players are very resilient and we have all the faith in them that this bump will only become a springboard into great things ahead.

Statistically speaking, the two teams could not have been more closely related. Pretty much the only team statistical category we had a large edge in was blocks, 7-1, and second chance points 13-7. Hershey was able to shoot 6/8 from the line compared to our 4/9, however, every other team stat from rebounds, assists, steals, turnovers, fouls, fg% , etc. was pretty much dead even.

Individually, Kyler Lusche had a good night shooting the basketball hitting 70% eFG%, scoring 14 points, pulling 7 rebs, and getting 2 blocks. Brandon Paxton led us with 18 points and 11 rebs for another Double-Double. He also added 4 ast and 5 blk. Trevor Fuss added 5pts and 2 ast. Ryker Behrend 6 pts, 2 reb, and 0 trn. Wyatt Cords 2 pts and 2 stl. Bransyn Kiefer had 2 very tough points and Braxton Miller had 1 pt, 3ast, and 0 trn.

Chase County 50,

Kimball 42

Saturday's game saw big swings in the first two quarters as we were able to get off to maybe one of the best starts we have had all season. We were very efficient in the 1st quarter going 7/11 from the field while keeping our opponent to only two points which they got from the line. We also only turned the ball over 1 time in that quarter and had a VPS rating of 2.50 as a team, taking a 16-2 lead. In the 2nd quarter Chase Co. started warming up from deep and our close outs were just a little late. Even though they went on some runs we seemed to still work the ball around and get some good shots. With Brandon picking up his 3rd foul at the 5 minute mark and still up by 11 we had to go smaller.  Chase hit another 3 pointer to get the lead down to 7, however, Kyler made a nice dish to Ryker Behrend on a fast break that Ryker was able to finish on the and 1 and put us back up by 10 with 1:20 left in the half. Unfortunately we did not close well, committing two turnovers and giving them 2 more good looks from deep and a last second layup at the buzzer, cutting our lead to 23-21 at the half. In the start of the 3rd quarter we still had not found our footing as Chase once again was able to go on a 8-0 run to start the 2nd half and go up by 6 on their first 3 possessions. After that both teams went on a cold spell, with us not getting our first bucket of the half until the 4 minute mark. Kyler was able to hit a corner 3 in transition and Ryker continued to drive the ball inside and convert on some key free throws to put us back on top 33-32 with 1:30 left in the 3rd quarter. Tied at 34 with under 30 secs they were able to take the clock down and hit a big 3 pointer to end the quarter. At the beginning of the 4th Chase was able to take a 7 point lead that we were unable to cut into, as once the time started getting lower we had to start fouling to try and get into the bonus. Ryker hit a 3 with 40 sec left to put us back to within 5 only to see it evaporate when we missed an assignment and they converted on a run out layup.

Highlights included our great 1st quarter play and Ryker Behrend coming off the bench to have a big game! Driving inside and finishing at the rim through contact, getting to the line and hitting 4/5 from the charity stripe, while also going 2/3 from deep. Ryker finished the evening leading us in points with 16 and shooting a very high 85.7% eFG%. Brandon Paxton finished with 11 pts, 8 reb, and 4 blk despite his early foul trouble. Kyler Lusche added 9 pts, 5 ast, and 3 reb. Trevor Fuss 2 pts, 2 ast, 2 stl, and 4 reb. Braxton Miller 2 pts, 5 ast, 3 reb, and Wyatt Cords added 2 pts.

All and all I thought our team battled hard, having to overcome many momentum swings. Chase Co. was a team that was averaging only 2 made threes a game, and in the first meeting they were able to beat us from inside the paint. However, in this contest we did a great job of shutting them down inside the paint, they were just able to connect too many threes in the 2nd and 3rd quarters which really gave them a lot of momentum that we were just short of overcoming.

However, in the end, I was very pleased with our patience in the beginning of the game and just how well we were able to find open teammates for high percentage shots. It was a tough, physical game that I think only makes us better as we continue to get ready for the more tournament play down the stretch of our season.