Plainsmen fall to Kimball, Gothenburg

Perkins County’s Plainsmen basketball team showed Friday they can put points on the board, scoring 54 against Kimball.

However, defensive breakdowns continue to offset that. In the final two minutes, Kimball hit three uncontested treys that lifted them to a 56-54 victory over the Plainsmen. 

On Saturday, Perkins County traveled to Gothenburg, where they suffered their fourth loss of the season, 63-33.

On the bright side, Coach Shawn Cole said the issues that led to another pair of the losses are all fixable with more repetitions in practice. 

During Friday’s game with Kimball, he thought the Plainsmen were playing well defensively. But when he watched film, he saw far more defensive breakdowns than he expected.

Their offensive effort resulted from working the progressions in the offense to get the shots the wanted, both inside and out.

The Plainsmen knocked down nine treys and 11 two-pointers compared to Kimball’s eight treys and 11 two-pointers. 

Ultimately, it came down to free throws. The Plainsmen went 8 for 18 while Kimball was 7 for 11.

Cole said Gothenburg put more pressure on the Plainsmen offense compared to Kimball. His team didn’t handle it well.

They only scored 33 points while giving up 63.

It was as if the Plainsmen forgot the success they had by executing the offense the night before, Cole said. 

He said more repetition in practice and more game experience will help improve both the offense and defense.

The Plainsmen are going to get plenty of game experience going into the Christmas moratorium. 

They played 3-1 Paxton Tuesday night, will travel to 1-4 Garden County Thursday and close out the week by hosting 5-0 Dundy County Stratton Saturday.

Kimball

Kimball came out with the hot hand outside the arc, hitting back-to-back treys en route to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes. 

Over the next six minutes, the Plainsmen answered and trailed by two, 8-10, after the first eight minutes.

From there on, the game was tied 13 different times with five of those ties coming in the fourth quarter.

The biggest lead either team held was four. 

With 2:09 left in the game, Hunter Garner knocked down a three to put Perkins County up 47-44.

Kimball answered with a trey, followed by a Garner basket and an and-one to regain a 50-47 lead with 1:39 left. 

Kimball tied it back up with an uncontested 3-pointer from NBA range. 

With 58 seconds left, Garner completed a drive to the bucket for the Plainsmen’s final lead 52-50.

Kimball missed a pair of free throws but got the rebound on the second one to set up their go-ahead trey with :35 left.

The Plainsmen came up empty on their next trip down, forcing them to foul. Kimball hit both sides of the one-and-one to go up 55-52 with 15 seconds left.

Kimball fouled Triston Hite on a three-point attempt, sending him to the line with 8.1 seconds left.

He missed the first, made the second and intentionally missed the third one to keep his team alive. Garner grabbed the rebound and was fouled with five seconds left,

He made the first to pull within one, 54-55, but couldn’t get the second one to fall to tie the game, forcing the Plainsmen to foul.

With :02.5 left, Kimball hit the first free throw but missed the second one intentionally to get the clock running on the Plainsmen rebound as time ran out. 

Three players finished in double figures led by Hunter Garner with 21, Hite finished with 15 and James Garner had 11.

Gothenburg

The Plainsmen got off to a slow start offensively at Gothenburg putting up eight points in the first quarter while Gothenburg doubled it at 11.

In the second quarter, the Plainsmen outscored the Swedes 13-11 including seven from Hunter Garner, four from James Garner and a pair from Alex Poppe.

The second half wasn’t kind to the Plainsmen. Hunter Garner got the only bucket of the third quarter while the defense gave up 17 to the Swedes. 

They continued their roll into the fourth, putting up 19 more while the Plainsmen finished out with 10 points. 

Hunter Garner was the leading scorer with nine.