HUMBOLDT — Humboldt Middle School’s basketball teams faced off against Eureka on Monday night. The boys A team won 42-39 and the B team won 30-20. The girls A team lost 34-30 and the B team fell 30-12.
Mason Sterling had a mammoth night for the boys, including a double-double and 30 points.
In the A game, Humboldt fell behind early, falling into a 6-0 hole. That was before Sterling decided to have one of the best middle school basketball games ever. The Cubs proceeded to take the game over, taking a four-point lead midway through the second quarter after a huge rally, propelled by Sterling.
Humboldt held onto the lead, going into the break up 13-12.
Eureka wasn’t done though, as they came storming back in the third to take a four-point lead. But once again, Sterling and his teammates had other plans, regaining the lead before the Tornadoes took it back late in the third.
The fourth quarter alone would have made for a great basketball game.
The Tornadoes went up by seven with just 3:30 left when Humboldt’s Collin Cook hit a jumper and got the and one and hit his free throw. Sterling then took matters into his own hands, stealing the ball and driving for a layup narrowing the gap to two points. With less than 90 seconds left, Humboldt’s Creed Shannon stole the ball and got the assist, passing to Sterling who tied the game on a jumper in the paint.
With a little over a minute left, Sterling got a rebound and a putback to put Humboldt up by two but Eureka still wasn’t done, taking a 39-38 lead.
Shannon was big late, going 2-4 from the free throw line in the final 20 seconds to help put Humboldt up 42-39. Eureka missed a game-tying shot and the Cubs won.
Sterling led the way with 30 points, 12 rebounds, and nine steals, one away from a triple-double. Cook had seven points. Shannon had five and went 1-1 from three.
The B game was a little more tame. The Cub offense got going early and the defense did their job, stopping the Tornado offense from scoring. One big factor for the Cubs was their continued great rebounding, which has been a trend for Humboldt this season.
Humboldt’s offense waned toward halftime and let Eureka come back, but the Cubs led 10-9 at the break.
After the break, Humboldt came out re-energized on both ends. The Cub defense held Eureka to eight points in the third, while the offense got in double digits for the first time of the night. The Cub offense would continue to score in bunches, with ten more points in the fourth.
The defense clamped down and allowed only three points to squash any hopes of a Eureka comeback.
Thatcher Mueller led Hmboldt with 12 points. Taner King had five and 10 rebounds. Kreed Jones and Carson Peters had four each. Emmitt Carson had three. Carson Russell had two.
