Not long after wrapping up Kimball’s first WTC title since 2009 with a convincing 50-42 win over Mitchell, head coach Ken Smith had to put things in perspective.

“There’s a lot of tough games ahead,” he pointed out, referring particularly to the upcoming subdistricts. But, he conceded, “right now we’re playing our best basketball of the year.”

That was clear in Saturday’s title game. After falling behind early on, the Longhorns rallied to forge a 19-2 run that started with Darbi Klinkhammer’s short jumper at the 6:11 mark in the first and continued into the second period. During the span--stretching over seven minutes, Shelby Vogel, Annie McCloud, Tori Reader and Jessica Hanks also took their turn putting points on the board.

“Everybody contributed,” Reader said. “It was a total team effort.”

Midway through the second quarter, the Longhorns began playing a game of keep away--bending sometimes, yet always holding Mitchell at arm’s length.

Andee Grentz scored for the Tigers on three consecutive possessions. But Kimball responded with a breakaway jumper by Klinkhammer, a power move inside by Reader and one of two from the line after Hanks drew a foul. Leading into the half, Chalsey Grentz drained two straight three pointers, closing the gap to 24-17 at the break.  The Longhorns--or rather McCloud--answered with a personal 6-0 run to start the third.

“You always have to worry about a lead in this conference,” Klinkhammer explained, “but we held it together.”

Barely, at times: Mitchell cut their deficit to six with 5:41 left in the game, after Liz Cunningham dropped a shot from six feet out. Klinkhammer snuffed out the charge, however, hitting from three point range less than a minute later. With 1:45 to play, Reader fouled Havannah Newins in the act of shooting from beyond the arc. She converted all three from the stripe, narrowing the Longhorns lead to 44-40.

“I think we ran into a bit of a fatigue factor,” Smith observed. The girls had fought through a challenging double overtime win just the evening before. “Physically we were tired, but mentally we did what we had to do.”

Reader proved him right, making up for the infraction by hitting two free throws of her own. McCloud followed, giving Kimball some much needed breathing room.

A few seconds later, the celebration was on.

“It’s like the best feeling in the world,” Klinkhammer said. She was playing junior high ball the last time Kimball held the WTC trophy.

Kimball’s seniors felt even greater emotion, as this title and the most recent one frame their high school careers: “Don’t ask me--there’ll be tears,” Jordain Gawith exclaimed.

“It’s exactly what I wanted,” Reader beamed afterward.

The Longhorns struggled early in the season. As the new year approached, however, they began to click.

“I wasn’t looking this far then,” McCloud said when asked if she thought a WTC title was possible. “But we have so much potential--we can go as far as we want.”