BURLINGTON — For 2½ quarters, Humboldt High’s Lady Cubs were able to piece together enough offense to withstand a familiar bugaboo — turnovers.
But from mid-point of the third quarter, Anderson County’s defense made life downright miserable for Humboldt.
The Bulldogs blitzed Humboldt to the tune of a 19-6 run to break open a double-digit lead, and never looked back in a 66-40 win in their Clsss 3A substate semifinal.
With the defeat, Humboldt’s season ends with an 11-11 mark.
“In the first half, we still were running our offense, even with the turnovers,” Humboldt head coach Aubrey Jones said. “But the higher they got, the more we went into panic mode.”
And while Humboldt’s offense sputtered, Anderson County’s dynamic duo of Rayne Jasper (26 points) and Cali Foltz (22) took over.
They led the way as Anderson County turned a 32-28 lead into a 60-36 advantage by the 3:29 mark of the fourth quarter.
“We knew they were both good shooters,” Jones said. “We just didn’t help each other as well as we could have. We started worrying about, ‘Oh now, we’ve gotta move here, and do this.’ We started playing every man for himself. And that’s not what we do.”
The first half was decidedly more competitive. Humbodlt led 9-6 late in the first quarter before Foltz and Jasper combined for 10 straight points to lead 16-9.
The lead grew to 20-13 before Humboldt’s Kady Hart scored inside and was fouled. She missed the free throw, but Jada Dangefield snagged the rebound and tossed the ball to Winter Snyder, who calmly buried a 3-pointer.
Suddenly, the deficit was down to two. Jasper ended the half with a buzzer-beating 3-pointer of her own, and theBulldogs took a 25-19 lead into the locker room.
Snyder scored 12 before intermission, including a pair of treys.
Dangerfield took the reins early in the third quarter, scoring seven of Humboldt’s first nine points after the break.
Snyder ended her high school career with 18 points to lead the Lady Cubs. Dangerfield followed with 11. Jessica Myers added six.
Jones offered high praise for Snyder and Humboldt’s only other senior, Emma Johnson.
“Winter’s been our catalyst,” Jones said. “She’s gonna talk in practice and annoy those underclassmen, but she’s also going to make them better for it.
