Though the final score read 62-50 in favor of Kimball, for a while on Saturday it seemed as if the Longhorns were still considering the previous evening’s last minute loss to Alliance.

The stunner dropped Kimball into the seventh place game on the final day of the Western Conference invitational and they allowed Mitchell to grab an early 13-6 lead. Midway through the opening period the Longhorns tied it up on a lay ups by Dalton Lockwood and Jake Reader.

But the Tigers managed to pull away again, stretching a seven point advantage early in the second quarter, thanks to slashing drives by Alberto Alvizar and an open jumper from Bo McVay.

Meanwhile Bruce Tjosvold’s Longhorns struggled to score on Mitchell’s zone press, though guards Trevan Hinton and Zach Rockhold broke it with apparent ease.

“We started in man to see what they had,” Tjsvold explained. “We felt like the game would slow up.”

Indeed, Mitchell dropped into a straightforward defensive zone. The Longhorns responded by working the perimeter and with 3:38 remaining in the half, Mike Daum posted up in the paint, took a pass and dropped jump shot from six feet. He followed with a three pointer and a little baby hook and suddenly the game was knotted at 30.

“Once they changed to zone they couldn’t cover the middle,” Daum said. “There were some easy lay ups.”

“Mike’s a great zone buster,” Tjosvold observed. “He did a great job hitting those shots.”

Kimball was never in serious trouble in the second half, though Mitchell did keep things close.

Defensively the Longhorns closed the baseline and covered the backdoor runs that Mitchell had worked to their advantage early on.

“We just got under control, got the nerves out,” Hinton explained.

Rockhold drove the lane to give Kimball a 39-31 lead with 5:07 to go in the third. A few minutes later, Hinton popped on from beyond the arc, making it a 43-35 game.

Mitchell never closed within four points after that and in the waning moments, the Longhorns took advantage of foul shot opportunities.

“It feels pretty good and a conference win is a plus,” Hinton said--especially after a tough outing against a strong Gering side and the narrow loss to Alliance.

“I just hope plenty more come after this one,” Rockhold added.