By Pat Garry, Staff Writer
The Kimball basketball girls enjoyed a week of winning, taking down Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City (AC-GC), 60-46, on Tuesday, December 4; followed by a Thursday victory over Dassel-Cokato, 51-24. (ACGC Game) Kimball trailed early and took the lead on a field goal by Erin O’Brien midway through the first half, to go up 17-16. O’Brien tallied 20 first-half points, launching the Cubs into the catbird seat, with a 34-25 halftime advantage. In the second stanza Rachel Utecht connected on a field goal to put the Cubs up 45-31, five minutes in. The Falcons cut the Kimball lead to ten, but back-to-back three pointers by Ashley Schindele and Cailyn Kuechle stretched the lead to 58-42 with three minutes remaining; and that was that. Stats: Erin O’Brien, 26 points, 14 rebounds and 5 assists; Ashley Schindele, 15 points and 5 rebounds; Cailyn Kuechle, 12 points and 2 assists; Rachel Utecht, 7 points, 6 steals and 4 assists; Sidney Schreiner, 5 assists.
(D-C Game) Sidney Schreiner broke a 2-2 tie with a 3-point bucket just two minutes in, giving the Cubs a lead that they would never again relinquish. Kimball played its best half of defensive ball to date and took a 28-10 lead into the hiatus. Schreiner also had two defensive charges, which kept the offensive attack at bay. Kimball was sharp the entire night and constructed a fairly balanced scoring attack. Ashley Schindele had 12 points, Erin O’Brien poured-in 10, Rachel Utecht rallied for 7, Cailyn Kuechle and Ellie Kuechle contributed 6 points each, Kristin Hilbert registered 4 points, and Sidney Schreiner, with teammate Madelyn Hunt, cashed-in for 3 points each. O’Brien grabbed 15 rebounds, and managed 2 steals, Utecht pulled-down 9 boards and claimed a pair of steals, Cailyn Kuechle dished-out 4 assists, while Utecht and O’Brien had 2 steals each.
“We played solid defense and our offense was unselfish; exhibiting great ball movement. It was a very nice performance on the road for our team,” said an enthused Coach Jeremy Kuechle.