Kimball falls to Perkins County

The Longhorn girls lost their third game of the season in Grant on Friday, while the boys suffered their first loss, as Perkins County proved to be too much for either team to handle.                                                
In the girls contest, Kimball was completely dominated by the Lady Plainsmen, losing by a score of 73-27.  The Lady Longhorns scored in the single digits in each quarter, managing to tally just 5 points in the first and 6 points in the last quarter.  Perkins County was led by Kailee Potts with a game high 24 points, with Ella Homan not far behind with 17.  Individual stats were not available for the Lady Longhorns, who fell to 1-3 on the season with the loss.
In the boys’ game, too many mistakes along with poor shooting, led to a 56-42 loss for Kimball, their first loss of the season.  In typical Perkins County fashion, this game was a low scoring affair, thanks to a very aggressive defense from the Plainsmen.  After one quarter of play, neither team had managed to get into double digits, with the score sitting at 9-5 in favor of Perkins County.  The rest of the contest proved to be more of the same, with Perkins County outscoring Kimball by 3-4 points in each quarter.  The Longhorns certainly didn’t play up to their potential, turning the ball over numerous times throughout the game, and the lack of accuracy shooting the ball didn’t help either.  Kimball was paced by Kyler Lusche with 17 points, and Brandon Paxton with 12.  The rest of the team, however, managed to score just 13 points combined. Lusche also led the way on the boards, with 9 rebounds on the night. Brandon Paxton, in foul trouble early in the first half, ended up fouling out of the game with 3 minutes to go, leaving Kimball without one of their bigs as they tried desperately to close the gap late in the game.
Saturday’s home games with the Morrill Lions saw the Longhorn girls lose another one, while the boys bounced back with a hard-fought win.  Next up for Kimball with be their final games of the year, as the Longhorns travel to Hershey this Friday to take on the Panthers in what should prove to be another tough matchup for both Kimball teams.