The Kimball High boys set a new record in winning this year’s Western Trails Conference Basketball Tournament for the fifth consecutive year and have now won the title nine of the 22 years the conference has been in existence! Congrats go out to coach Bruce Tjosvold who has been the head coach for all five of these championships!

The Longhorns were the No. 1 seed this year giving them a first round bye into the semi finals and needed to win just two games to claim the top spot. In the semi finals they went up against Gordon-Rushville, a 46-43 winner over Bayard in first round play, and the Horns won out 58-37.

In the bottom bracket, Hemingford had won over Bridgeport 51-47, and Mitchell over Morrill 64-62 in over time of first round play. In the other semi final contest, Hemingford won out over Mitchell 57-51 to put them into the championship against Kimball, while Gordon-Rushville and Mitchell met up in the consolation game for third place honors and Mitchell won out 53-42. No problem for Kimball in the title game winning 68-43 over Hemingford.

The Horns had a slow start, as they sometimes do, against Gordon/Rushville, falling behind 10-0 before Kendall Ferguson took the lid off the basket with a pair of free throws, but the Horns were trailing 10-4 at the quarter break. Jeff Greenwood came off the bench to provide some defensive spark and scored 6 points as Kimball out scored the Mustangs 19-2 in the second period, scoring the final 17 points of the quarter, to roll to a 23-12 half time lead. Woodrow Parsons was getting the job done as well scoring 7 first half points.

Parsons continued to add to his point total with 4 in the third period and Jake Daum netted 8 in this same time frame and the Big Red led 39-22 after three quarters of play. Kimball took care of business in the fourth quarter and ended the contest with Taylor Brown scoring 3 straight layins.

Four players in double figures for Kimball with Ferguson high with 17, along with his 8 rebounds, 7 steals, 3 blocks and 3 assists. He was 3/3 at the line. Daum finished with 14 points going 4/4 at the line and had 8 rebounds. Parsons had 11 points with 1 trey, and Greenwood 10 plus 5 rebounds. Brown had 6 to round out the scoring and also picked off 3 steals.

In team stats, Kimball was 7/10 at the line, 25/65 from the field going 1/9 from three point range, had 25 rebounds, 16 steals, 8 assists and 4 blocks,8 turnovers,and 10 fouls.

Gordon-Rushville was 1/3 at the line, 15/43 from the field, and 6/19 on three pointers. Lane Haller was high for the Mustangs with 9, Derek Janssen had 8, Trevor Standing Soldier 8, Marcus Fairhead 5, Kalen Coats 4, and Chris Conroy 3.

Kimball      4  19   16   19---58

Gord./Rush. 10  2    10    15---37

A much better start in the title game with Parsons netting a 17 footer to open the scoring and the Horns played four quarters of focused basketball, especially on the defensive end of things.

Kimball scored 19 points in each of thefirst 3 quarters and finished out with 21 in the fourth period. You can’t be much more consistent than that!

A big night for Daum who had an outstanding tournament both nights. Daum was high in the title game with 21 points going 8/14 from the field and 5/6 at the line and had 7 rebounds. Brady Land showed off his shooting skills with 19 points on 8/16 shooting and was 3/8 on three pointers. He also charted 4 rebounds and 4 steals. Ferguson was double teamed all night but still wound up with 13 points and was 5/5 at the line. He dished the ball to team mates ending with 8 assists, 9 rebounds, 3 steals and 2 blocks. Brown had 4, Parsons 8 along with 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 1 block, Greenwood 2 points, and Trevan Hinton 1.

The Horns were 13/15 at the line, 26/64 from the field, 3/13 on three pointers, had 29 rebounds, 15 steals, 13 assists,3 blocked shots, 11 turnovers, and 18 fouls.

Hemingford was 13/17 at the line, 13/51 from the field, 4/15 from three point range, had 27 rebounds, and 15 fouls. Nick Wood and Tyler Swanson had 11 each, Blake Hansen 5, Kyle Kumpf 4, Chance Campbell 3, Kyle Kaman 3, Jameson Forgey 2, Jesse Savala 2, and Casey Stangle 2.

Coach Tjosvold, commenting on the tournament said,”We had a slow start in the Gordon/Rushville game, but when we picked up our defense it changed the game. Jeff (Greenwood) came in and gave us a push. In the Hemingford game I thought the kids were focused and we had a total team effort the entire game.

We played well in all phases. Brady (Land) shot well outside, Jake tore them apart inside, Woodrow and Taylor both played strong and Kendall’s passing and overall play was good. Of course I was happy.”

Tjosvold went on to say that his kids didn’t even get all excited about the win.

“I guess because they were expecting to win and to win pretty big,” he said.

Now the Horns have to go right back against Hemingford this Friday, at Hemingford.

Saturday night they are at home for the final home appearance, with Sutherland coming to town. Game times at Hemignford begin at 3:30 with the boy’s varsity at 6:30, and Saturday action starts at 2 p.m. with the boy’s varsity at 5 p.m.

Kimball 19 19 19 21---68

Hemingford 7 12 13 11---43