The Kimball High boys defeated Hershey in the Cl-6 District Tournament Monday evening to advance to the 2011 Nebraska Boy’s State Tournament coming up March 10-11-12 in Lincoln.

The Longhorns left no doubt with their second win of the season over the Panthers of Hershey, winning 59-42, in front of a packed gymnasium with both schools bringing large fan turn outs. The atmosphere was outstanding to say the least, complete with bands from both schools, the spirit squads, and fans ready to squeeze into any little spot they could find. Some late arriving Kimball fans had to settle for seats on the Hershey side, but they did their cheering in grand style desp.ite location.

The last time Kimball sent a boy’s team to the state tourney was 1999, also the last time they won a district title. Kimball High Activities Director Ken Smith was busy Tuesday morning pulling up results on his computer to inform me that it looked like Kimball would be the No. 2 seed and would face No. 7 seed Milford in the 7 p.m. game on March 10 at Pershing Auditorium. The official results were to be announced yesterday (Wednesday).

Kimball had faced Hershey way back on Dec. 17and had picked up a 70-58 victory in the road game. Despite their win over the Panthers, Hershey has been ranked one spot ahead of Kimball in the state Class C-l rankings the last few weeks. Look for a change this week!

Coach Bruce Tjosvold said having played Hershey once prior made it easier to prepare for the district playoff.

“We knew what they liked to do and we knew what we wanted to do to shut them down. Hershey likes to run and we did a good job of shutting down their break and actually maybe got up and down the court better than they did,” said Tjosvold.

Tjosvold went on to praise the defensive efforts of his Horns saying it played a large part in the win.

Kimball had a narrow 1 point lead (9-8) at the end of the first period, but outscored the Panthers 18-12 in the second period to take a 27-20 lead at half time.

Kendall Ferguson was already making his presense known with 14 points by intermission and Taylor Brown had chipped in with 7. Jake Daum was making strong moves inside for his scoring, and Woodrow Parsons hit some key baskets, including a trey, in the third quarter as Kimball stretched their lead to 38-28 heading into the fourth period.

The Horns had seven players score in the fourth quarter as they tallied 21 points to 14 for Hershey in putting the game away. They got the job done at the foul line in the final period going 15/20 in that time frame, and ended up 22/31 for the game at the line.

Coach Tjosvold was able to go to his bench in the closing seconds to give everyone a taste of winning a district title and to allow the fans to give a standing ovation to the senior starters as they came out of the contest.

Another big night for senior Ferguson as the big fellow led all scorers with 23 on 6/12 field goal shooting and 11/14 foul shooting. He hauled in 17 rebounds, had 3 blocks, 6 assists, and 1 steal for a usual solid performance.

Great night for Brown who racked up 13 points going 5/8 from the field and 3/3 at the line.

Parsons had 8 points and Kimball’s only trey on the night. He also pulled 6 rebounds, had 3 steals and 1 blocked shot.

Daum ended up with 7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 steal and played big inside all night. before fouling out with 2:31 left in the game.

Brady Land was perfect at the foul line going 4 for 4 for his 4 points. He also had a block and 4 steals. Jeff Greenwood had 2 points, 2 steals, 3 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block, and Brent Bussinger hit both of his free throws for 2 points.

In the final team stats, Kimball shot 22/31 at the line, 17/38 on two point field goals and 1/7 on three point attempts. They had 34 rebounds, 12 steals, 10 assists, and 6 blocked shots, 15 turnovers, and 15 fouls.

Hershey was charted with 20 rebounds, shot 6/14 at the line, were 9/36 on two point fielders and 6/19 on three pointers.

They were whistled for 28 fouls. Leading scorer for the Panthers was Jordan Hiatt with 17 including 3 treys, James Moore 8 with 2 treys, Bryson Hellmuth 5, Keegan Kuroki 4, Jeffery Young 4, Matthew Pishna 3 with 1 trey, and Wesley Layton 1.

With the win, Kimball ran their win streak to 21 games and will take a record of 22-2 into the state tournament. The Longhorns will leave on Wednesday and work out some where on the way down.

A big community pep rally is going to be held at the Kimball High gym on Monday, March 7, at 7 p.m. and everyone is urged to come out and help give the Horns a big early send off. GO BIG RED!

Kimball 9 18 11 21--59

Hershey 8 12 8 14--42