The Kimball High boys showed they were a state calibre team taking Milford to the final seconds before losing 57-51 in first round play of the Class C-1 State Tournament. Milford ended up third in the final standings of the state tournament bracket defeating Grand Island Central Catholic 63-54 in the consolation finals after losing to eventual state champs Norfolk Catholic 55-51 in the semi finals.

Kimball stayed close early with Woodrow Parsons hitting a 17-footer and then a three pointer, and Brady Land nailed a trey as time expired in the opening quarter to close to 18-14.

By half time Milford had extended their lead to 9 points and were on top 33-24. Jake Daum and Taylor Brown had big baskets in the second period and Kendall Ferguson had 8 points and 8 rebounds by intermission.

Milford ran their lead to 12 points with a three point play to start the third quarter, but Parsons hit another trey for Kimball before Milford scored the next 5 points to run the score to 41-27. That’s when the Longhorns dug deep and went to work mounting a come back, out scoring the Eagles 16-2 to knot the score at 43-43 at the end of the third period.

Daum started the run with a strong move and inside bucket, Parsons and Land hit back to back treys, Brown nailed a 16-footer, Parsons had a put-back rebound basket on a follow shot, Land hit a 14-footer and Ferguson scored in the lane for the tying basket.

It was an all new and all even ball game to start the fourth period, but the Horns had used a lot of energy in the come back. They battled hard down the final stretch, staying close.

Daum scored on a layin, Parsons hit a baseline shot, Ferguson went to the line and made both free throws and then hit a 16-footer after a slick move to get open, leaving the Horns trailing 54-51 with 1:00 remaining, but a couple of untimely turnovers and Milford hitting three free throws in the closing seconds put the game out of reach as Milford out scored Kimball 14-8 in the final period.

No doubt Kimball deserved to be in the state tournament bracket and were quite close to securing that first round win against a very quality opponent. It would have been nice for the Kimball players to get to play at Devaney, and to get to play two more games, but a salute to a great team and a great season. They played themselves proud and all of Western Nebraska can share in that pride.

Parsons may have had his best performance of the year as he led Kimball scoring with 15 points including 3 treys, had 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 1 blocked shot. Kendall Ferguson ended with 14 points going 4/5 at the line, had 16 rebounds, 5 steals, 3 assists, and 1 block. Brady Land hit a pair of treys and had 8 points. Jake Daum was 4 of 6 from the field for 8 points, and Taylor Brown ended up with 6 points along with 5 rebounds and 2 steals. Jeff Greenwood, Trevan Hinton and Dalton Lockwood also got some court time, and these three juniors will be back next year to try and get Kimball back to Lincoln.

In the final stats, Kimball was 4/6 at the line, 16/42 on two point field goal attempts, 5/18 on three pointers, had 30 rebounds, 10 steals, 10 assists, and 2 blocked shots. Milford was 8/10 at the line, 22/54 from the field going 5/17 on three point tries, had 28 rebounds and 11 fouls. Kimball had 12 fouls and 13 turnovers, only 3 in the first half and 6 in the fourth quarter.

Milford had 8 players get in the scoring columns led by Braxtyn Plessel with 5 treys and 20 points. Coach Bruce Tjosvold said the depth of the Milford team helped them in the stretch.

“I am proud of the way our kids performed and I told them they certainly deserved to be in the state tournament.

When you look at what Milford did in their other two games, and with them finishing third with a big win over Central Catholic, it shows we are in the same category as the other C-l teams. Also, if you look at how far we had to travel compared to all of the other teams in the bracket, that might have some bearing.

I am proud of this bunch of guys and feel we had a great season,” said Tjosvold.

Kimball saw their consecutive win streak end at 21 and ended up the year with a record of 22-3. They went into the state tournament ranked No. 8 by the Omaha World Herald and the top ten ratings were not out at the time of this writing.

Kimball will graduate their entire starting five but have some quality players returning from next year’s senior class along with some outstanding younger players with a bright future.

In the weeks ahead we will give you readers the final stats for the season and take a look at what next year might bring.

Kimball 14 10 19 8--51

Milford 18 15 10 14--57