It was the best of times (for Crest High).
It was the worst of times (for Humboldt.)
The two schools squared off Tuesday in the opening round of the War on 54 Tournament, where the Lancers found their groove early and never let up in a 44-27 romp.
It was a stark reversal of fortune for the schools, who played early in the season with Humboldt winning by 22.
This time around, it was the Lancers who controlled the tempo from the opening tip.
“We’ve talked about playing as a team, picking each other up, doing the little things right,” Lancer head coach Dakotah Sporing said. “Tonight, we finally did it. We played a full 32 minutes with no letdowns.”
Crest’s Ryan Golden was his typical stellar self on the hardwood, scoring seven early points, including a 3-pointer, as Crest took a 13-5 lead after one period.
“We got beat in every facet of the game,” Humboldt head coach David Taylor said. “Offense, defense, rebounds, shooting. There’s no other way to put it. It wasn’t a bad spurt here or there. It was just a bad spurt all the way through.”
Humboldt had no answers for the Lancers, who effectively shut down the Cubs’ potent interior game, clogged passing lanes and pounced at every loose ball.
The game was evenly matched in the second quarter as Crest took a 20-14 lead into the locker room.
Humboldt tried varying strategies to shift the momentum, extending its pressure defense, but those attempts were thwarted by Crest’s willingness to attack upcourt in response, leading to multiple open layups.
“We talked at halftime about how they would extend pressure out of their zone, or out of their man defense, and what we could do to counter it,” Sporing said. “The guys did it beautifully.”
Golden scored twice midway through the third quarter to push the Lancers ahead by eight. His long jumper a short while later made it a double-digit game, and Jacob Zimmerman’s buzzer-beater at the end of the period made it 34-22.
Humboldt’s Colden Cook, who attacked the bucket relentlessly in the second half, finally got a pair to drop early in the fourth period to slice the Cub deficit to eight, but Crest’s Gentry McGhee responded with a bucket, followed by a Rogan Weir 3-pointer to push the Lancers ahead, 39-26.
Humboldt didn’t score from the field again.
