The Kimball High Lady Longhorns brought home the fourth place trophy from the Nebraska Class C-l Girl’s State Basketball Tournament held in Lincoln this past weekend, and each Kimball player also received medals for their fourth place finish as well. To finish in the top four of their class at the state tourney after battling their way to a sub-district championship and a district playoff championship, capped off a great season and was a fitting send off to the six seniors on this year’s team. The Kimball ladies went into the state tourney seeded in the No. 5 spot and facing No. 4 seed Hershey, the same club they had defeated the week prior in the District playoff. Hershey received the higher seed by virtue of their power points which gave the Lady Panthers a wild card berth into the state tournament bracket. These two schools had already faced each other twice with Hershey winning the first contest on December 19, at Hershey, 50-31. In the District playoff Kimball won out 58-44, and in the first round of the state tourney, it was Kimball winning 56-52. A first round win is all important in this day and age as the NSAA expanded the state tourney to playing a consolation game on Saturday along with the championship in all classes. A first round win assures a team three games and a chance to play in that consolation championship as well. The Kimball girls did what they needed to do to get themselves into the consolation finals, although it looked bleak early. Hershey jumped out to an early lead and thanks in part to seven Kimball turnovers, they were on top 18-8 at the quarter break. Not only was Kimball trailing in the game, Jaclyn Christensen had picked up two quick fouls and was on the bench but junior Jeni Gompert stepped up big time as she came off the bench to score six first-period points and keep Kimball in contention. Kimball started to roll in the third period with Jenna Provance scoring on a base line move, followed by a three pointer and a pair of free throws by Danielle Perry. Cierra Pedersen had checked in and promptly hit a pair of free throws and nailed a short jumper, and Kayli Rageth hit a pair of gift shots and scored on two driving layins. Her last bucket came off a steal and assist from Perry to tie the game at 25-25 with :58 seconds left in the half. With Kimball outscoring Hershey 17-9 in the second period, they closed the gap to 27-25 as they headed into the half time locker room at Pershing Auditorium. The third period began with Heather Dickson hitting a 16 footer to tie the score at 27-27 and Rageth took a pass from Christensen to finish off another drive to the basket to give Kimball a 29-27 lead. Kimball went on to dominate the third period outscoring Hershey 16-3 to take a 41-30 lead into the fourth period. Kimball went into a delay type game to use up some clock later in the final quarter and with less than a minute left they shot a perfect 6 for 6 at the foul line with Provance, Dickson and Perry all going 2 for 2. Hershey out scored Kimball 22-15 in the final period but they came with too little, too late, as the Horns won out 56-52.Kimball’s foul shooting was the difference as they shot an amazing 25 for 28 at the line for 89 percent and were 17 for 19 in the second half. They were 14 for 45 from the field going 3 for 6 on three pointers and 11 for 39 on two point field goal attempts. The Lady Horns pulled 29 rebounds to 16 for Hershey, had 17 steals, 11 assists, 1 block, 14 fouls and 25 turnovers. Kayli Rageth led Kimball scoring with 19 points with 1 trey on her only attempt from beyond the arc, was 6 for 7 at the line, had 4 rebounds, 4 assists, and 3 steals. Danielle Perry netted a pair of treys and was 6 for 6 at the line ending up with 12 points to go with her 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists. Jeni Gompert was 2 for 4 from the field and 3 for 4 at the line for 7 points, Heather Dickson was 4 for 4 at the line with 6 points and 6 steals. Jenna Provance was 2 for 2 at the line and 2 for 3 from the field for 6 points plus 5 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 assist. Cierra Pedersen was 2 for 2 at the line and 1 for 3 from the field for 4 points and Jaclyn Christensen had 2 points with 6 rebounds and 3 assists.Hershey was 15 for 40 on two point fielders, 3 for 9 on three pointers, 13 for 16 at the line, and had 16 rebounds. Josey Schomp led Hershey with 20 points, Ann Kuroki and Marla Munsen had 11 each. Kimball  8  17  16  15--56 Hershey 18   9   3  22-15BISHOP NEUMANN 55 KIMBALL 30 With the first round win, the Kimball ladies ran head on into the No. 1 seed, Bishop Neumann, in their semi final game. They gave the top seed a run for their money in the first half and actually had a 25-22 lead at half time, but the eventual state champions took control in the second half and out scored Kimball 33-5 for a 55-30 win. Bishop Neumann put on an in-your-face smothering pressure defense in the third period that led to 13 Kimball turnovers with the winners out scoring the Horns 20-2 in period number three. In the fourth quarter they held Kimball to 3 points while scoring 13. In first half play, Danielle Perry nailed 3 treys and Kayli Rageth 2 treys, but they didn’t get those looks in the second half. Rageth ended up with 10 points going 2 for 2 on treys while Perry had 9 points and was 3 for 4 from beyond the arc. Heather Dickson had  6 points, Jenna Provance 4 along with 4 rebounds, Whitney Lockwood 1. Jaclyn Christensen had 4 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 assists, and Jeni Gompert and Cierra Pedersen had 4 and 3 rebounds respectively. In team stats, Kimball was 5 for 21 on two point fielders and 5 for 7 on three pointers but took only 9 shots from the field the second half. They were 5 for 12 from the line, had 19 rebounds, 8 steals, and 6 assists. They also had 16 fouls and 27 turnovers. Neumann shot 18 for 43 on two point fielders, 2 for 12 on three point fielders, 13 for 20 at the line and had 20 rebounds. Kimball  9  16  2  3--30  Bishop Neumann 9  13  20  13--55 CROFTON 56 KIMBALL 30In the consolation finals for third and fourth/at the Lincoln East Gymnasium Saturday morning, once again the Kimball ladies battled even with Crofton the first half before falling back in the second half. Crofton led 9-7 at the quarter break and was on top 25-20 at half time. It was still a 10 point ball game at the end of the third period with Crofton on top 40-30. Kimball got into some early foul trouble and lost both Jaclyn Christensen and Cierra Pedersen in the fourth quarter with 5 fouls. Danielle Perry led Kimball with 12 points including a pair of three point field goals in the second period. Jaclyn Christensen had 6 points hitting both attempts from three point range, had 6 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists. Jenna Provance had 6 points with 5 rebounds, 1 block and 1 assist. Heather Dickson had 6 points and was 2 for 2 at the line and 2 for 4 from the field. Kayli Rageth had 2 points going 2 for 2 at the line and took only 4 shots from the field. She also had 4 rebounds, 1 steal and 1 assist. Cierra Pedersen had 2 points with 4 rebounds and 1 assist. Coach Ken Smith got good play from Jeni Gompert, Whitney Lockwood and Kelby Dickerson off the bench as well. In team stats, Kimball was 7 for 30 on two point fielders, 4 for 19 on three point attempts, 8 for 16 at the line, had 22 rebounds, 6 steals, 9 assists and 2 blocked shots, 23 fouls and 16 turnovers. Crofton shot 16 for 42 on two point field goals, 1 for 3 on three pointers, 21 for 30 at the foul line, had 12 fouls and 30 rebounds. Kimball  7  16  15  16--56 Crofton  9  16  15  16--34SummaryIn summary, the Kimball girls closed out a very solid season ending up 21-6 to set a new record for most games played in a season at 27, bettering the old mark of 24-1 and 25 games by the 1998-99 team. They finished 4th out of the 64 Class C-l schools in the state, were awarded a trophy to put in the Kimball High trophy case and each girl was awarded a state medal as well. In the Omaha World Herald final C-l ratings, Kimball was listed No. 7 with Hershey No. 8. Bishop Neumann was the No. 1 ranked team and Crofton No. 5. I asked coach Smith to share some of his thoughts, “I was very pleased and proud of the way the girls competed at the state tournament, especially against the No. 1 and No. 2 state ranked team as rated all year long. We played both Neumann and Crofton even the first half, but didn’t have the depth and the athleticism to battle them an entire game.”“When you take into consideration the distance we had to travel and then sleeping in strange surroundings while these teams can go home to their own beds, that makes a difference also,” he said, “I was proud our girls played hard to the final horn. We got good play out of our starters and also from our bench.”Smith said, “I think we have good depth as well, and enough depth this year that I feel we have a good chance to repeat with another trip to state next year. This group of girls were a pleasure to work with and we will certainly miss our six seniors.” In the next week or two we will bring you some final stats and a look at what records were broken this season and what we can look forward to next year.