The Kimball High girls struggled on offense as they went winless in three games at the Western Conference basketball tournament in the season opening weekend. The Lady Longhorns lost to Sidney 47-38 in first round play held at the Kimball site on Thursday night, lost to Gering 48-33 in game two, and fell to Douglas 46-27 in game three.

Coach Ken Smith said, “We struggled on offense. We missed way too many shots and had a hard time getting into our offense. It’s hard for me to understand as we shot the ball quite well in our summer play.”

Smith went on to say that he is proud of the girls for not quitting and for playing hard.

“The girls are really working hard and they refused to lay down when they got behind. We came back strong in the second half and out scored our opponents,” he said.

In the Sidney game both teams pressured on defense and Sidney took a 1 point (7-6) lead at the quarter break. Kimball actually out scored the Raiders 16-11 in the final quarter but was too far back to recover. Tori Reader had a great fourth quarter for Kimball scoring 12 of her team high 15 points in that 8 minute stretch. Miss Reader shot 6/12 from the field and 3/6 at the line, had 9 rebounds and a block. Darbi Klinkhammer ended with 8 points on 4/6 shooting, pulled 5 rebounds, had 5 steals and 3 assists. Whitney Lockwood had 6 points, 5 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 assists. Austyn Pedersen hit a trey for 3 points, Shelby Vogel had a trey and 3 points, Kelby Dickerson had 2, and Hannah Stull 1.

Kimball was 6/15 at the foul line, 15/43 from the field going 2/13 from three point land, had 29 rebounds, 16 steals, 9 assists and 1 blocked shot. They had way too many turnovers with 37, and were whistled for 21 fouls.

Sidney was 18/30 at the line with 17 fouls, 13/45 from the field going 3/8 on three pointers, and had 18 rebounds. Marjorie Keeton was high with 14 points, Khara Krueger had 11, Jessica Glanz 7, Karissa Segelke 5, Leah Uhlir 4, Jeni Heeren 3, Kylee Price 2, and Mattie Anglin 1.

Sidney    7   14   15   11---47

Kimball   6    8    8   16---38

Gering outscored Kimball in all four quarters of game two as the Lady Horns suffered once again with turnovers and poor foul shooting. Austyn Pedersen was high with 10 points netting a pair of treys. Klinkhammer had 8, Reader 8 with 6 rebounds, Lockwood 6, and Annie McCloud 1.

Kimball was 9/21 at the foul line, 11/56 from the field going 2/10 on three pointers, had 22 rebounds, 18 steals, and 4 assists, and 14 fouls. Gering was 2/8 at the line, had 19 fouls, out rebounded Kimball by 22 with 43 rebounds, shot 23/49 from the field and 0/2 on three pointers. Morgan Broussard scored 12, Kerissa Mitchell 10, Morgan Greene 6, Megan Upp 6, Bryana Larsen 6, Nicole Michael 4, and Kenzie Duncan 2.

Gering  12   14   8   14---48

Kimball  6   11   5   11---33