Kimball girls basketball team wins in overtime

The Kimball boys basketball team had a good enough record to hand them a first round bye in the 2026 Western Trails Conference Tournament. They will play Mitchell in a semi-final match-up at 5pm on Friday. Now they will have some company at Cougar Palace in Scottsbluff as the #3 seed lady longhorns have earned their own semi-final round with a close throughout, overtime win over the #6 seed Gordon-Rushville Lady Mustangs.

The longhorns came out confident in their WTC first round game. Taking an early lead with three pointers from Addy Olsen and great work in the paint by Bohac sisters JaLeigh and Faith. They would double up the mustangs 16-8 midway through the first before letting Gordon-Rushville back into the game.

Still the longhorns led at half, and most of the way through the third quarter. That is when the foul shooting of Rowan Simonson brought the mustangs back and gave them the lead. The longhorns earned back a two point lead on an Olson three-pointer before the quarter ended. Up by two entering the fourth quarter, the longhorns quickly got themselves into foul trouble and had a couple turnovers that allowed the mustangs to lead several more times in the final set. The longhorns were holding a two point lead in the final seconds when Ashlyn Dehning broke away and put a lay-up on the board to tie the game at 50 as time expired.

A 4:00 minute overtime period was forced where the longhorns made it clear they are after a WTC title. They proceeded to outscore the mustangs 9-5 in overtime and win the game 59-55 to advance to the semi-final round.

They will play Morrill on Friday at 3:30pm at the palace before the boys take on Mitchell at 5:00pm. Both games will air on 104.3 KIMB, 1043kimb.com, and the free News Channel Nebraska app.