YATES CENTER It was not the first time this season that Humboldt head coach Aubrey Jones needed to pull her team aside for a come-to-Jesus moment. The kind where no words were minced and the words that were used may not be printable.
Sometimes, teams need a such a wake-up call and with the Lady Cubs down 16 to Yates Center with a quarter and a half to play, there was no time to lose.
With the Lady Cubs season on the line in the opening round of Class 2A Sub-State action Tuesday night, Jones appealed to her girls past experiences and hoped it would be enough to move the needle.
I reminded them theyve been through situations like this time after time after time, Jones said. We put them in game-like situations in practice for this reason. We just needed to buckle down and play our game and thats what we did.
Jones wasnt the only coach making such an appeal. After the Lady Wildcats dominated the opening minutes of the second half, taking a seven-point halftime lead and ripping off a 9-0 run to go up 16, Wildcat head coach Abbie Collins pulled her team aside with the hopes of preempting a Humboldt comeback.
I was trying to tell them that Im from Yates Center and the Humboldt-Yates Center rivalry is big, Collins said. Humboldt wasnt going to just sit down. Once we went away from playing our game then they made us pay. We were passive and we settled for bad shots.
At the end of the third quarter, Humboldt trailed by only eight and by the time the final buzzer rang, the fifth-seeded Lady Cubs (13-7) had knocked off four-seed Yates Center (13-6) 50-48 to advance to the sub-state semifinals.
The Lady Cubs continued to chip away at Yates Centers lead throughout the fourth quarter, getting within a point at 44-43 after a pair of free throws from senior Aricah McCall with 1:39 to play.
On the next drive, it was sophomore Jada Dangerfield who was fouled and her two free throws gave Humboldt its first lead since the first quarter. Humboldt had deployed its press and when the Lady Cats attempted to get the ball past halfcourt, it was Dangerfield who managed to get a steal and drive straight to the hoop for a bucket, putting Humboldt ahead by three with a minute to play.
Jones raved about her sophomore who scored 10 points, six of which came in the fourth quarter.
Jada is so much bigger and stronger than she realizes, it blows your mind, Jones said. I think shes just starting to figure out more and more each game and shes building her confidence more and more each game. The best thing is our girls are extremely awesome about encouraging her and getting her the ball. Shes such a hard worker and I expect huge things out of her, more than I think she ever will realize because she has that drive, that good attitude and that talent and theres more to come. People are going to watch her.
Yates Center was not down-and-out. Despite senior Jordan Weseloh missing two free throws right after Dangerfields steal and score, junior Jaylee Catron tied things up at 48 with 15.7 to play.
Humboldt senior Savanna Puckett went to the line shortly after that but hit only one of two which was OK because Dangerfield was there to get the offensive rebound. In her third trip to the line that quarter, Dangerfield hit the back-end of the two free throws to put the Lady Cubs up by a score with 7.7 seconds left.
The ball was knocked out of bounds while Yates Center was taking it up the court leaving them to inbounds with just a second to play.
The Lady Cats passed the ball in but Dangerfield was there to disrupt the pass leaving the Lady Cats unable to get a tying shot off.
Humboldt had five big scorers led by junior Winter Snyder who had 12, Dangerfield and senior Kaylie Johnson who each had 10 and senior Maggie Johnson and Aricah McCall who each had eight.
