HUMBOLDT — Little things matter. Just ask Humboldt High’s Cubs and Lady Cubs.
The Cubs only had nine turnovers and dished out 18 assists in their 56-26 win over Uniontown High’s Eagles Tuesday night. The Lady Cubs found themselves in a 13-0 hole and lost 52-37 to the Eagle girls in their first-round game of Humboldt High’s Second Annual Emprise Bank Basketball Tournament.
“Our assist/turnover ratio was 1-1 in Friday’s win at Neodesha which was alright but we talked to the guys about doing better. Tonight is was 2-1 in we had twice as many assists as we had turnovers,” said David Taylor, Humboldt boys’ head coach.
The Cubs held the Eagle boys to just nine first-half points. Humboldt rolled to a 31-9 halftime advantage.
“We played very well in the first half. We rebounded well at both ends which allowed us to get out and run. Being able to use our transition game to score was a big key in the game. Our kids are playing very unselfish basketball,” Taylor said.
Tanner McNutt fired in 19 points and had six rebounds for the Cubs. Trey Johnson added 16 points plus had six rebounds and four steals. McNutt and Johnson each hit two three-pointers in the game.
Noah Thornbrugh had a double-double with 13 points and 13 rebounds. He also dished out four assists as did Blake Crawford. Nathan Whitcomb had five assists. Humboldt shot 38.5 percent, 22 of 57, from the field and downed 8 of 14 from the free-throw line.
Uniontown was only 2 of 8 from the line. All of those attempts were taken by Brenton Esslinger, who had 12 points for the Eagles. Humboldt had a 41 to 17 rebounding edge on Uniontown.
THE LADY CUBS made a game of it despite falling behind 13-0 to start against the Eagle girls. Uniontown was up only by three, 17-14, at halftime.
“We need to do the little things better and we’ll start having success on the court. It’s tough to come back from a 13-point deficit,” said Sherri Nelson, Lady Cub head coach.
“Our bench (players) gave us valuable minutes and we were able to use our press defense to get into the game again.”
Uniontown outscored Humboldt 19-10 in the third quarter to establish more of a lead in the second half.
“Sometimes you have to win ugly,” said Ken Holt, Eagle head coach. “That’s what we did tonight.”
The Eagles hit 8 of 26 free throw attempts in the game. Hope Jurgensen led all scorers with 28 points for the Eagles plus 12 rebounds.
Lauren Rockhold had nine assists and four steals for the Eagles. Emily Shinn cleared 11 rebounds.
Humboldt got 11 points and nine steals from Whitney Strack. Breanna Kline dropped in 10 points, pulled down six rebounds and had five steals.
Sheri Middleton cleared 10 rebounds for Humboldt and blocked four shots. Morgan Morris had eight rebounds.
The round-robin tournament continues Thursday with the Humboldt squads playing Crest High’s teams. Uniontown’s teams take on Erie. On Friday, the Eagle teams play against Crest and Humboldt’s Cubs and Lady Cubs play Erie.
Humboldt boys (20-11-12-13—56) (FG/3-pt): Vanatta 0-0-1-0, McNutt 5/2-3-3-19, Boring 0-0-2-0, Whitcomb 1-0-1-2, Crawford 3-0-1-6, Johnson 5/2-0-1-16, Thornbrugh 4-5-3-13. TOTALS: 18/4-8-12-56.
Uniontown boys (7-2-14-3—26): Travis 1-0-2-2, Wiley 0-0-5-0, Miller 1-0-2-2, Kuns 0-0-2-0, Ulrey 1-0-0-2, Robinson 1-0-2-2, Esslinger 5-2-1-12, Sympson 3-0-1-6. TOTALS: 12-2-15-26.
Humboldt girls (6-8-10-13—37) (FG/3-pt): Kline 5-0-0-10, Strack 3/1-2-3-11, Wells 1-4-4-6, Young 0-0-4-0, English 0-0-3-0, Morris 2-0-3-4, Middleton 0-2-4-2, Wilson 1-0-0-2, K. Riebel 0-2-0-2. TOTALS: 12/1-10-21-37.
Uniontown girls (13-4-19-16—52): Murrow 2-3-2-7, Shinn 1-0-3-2, Rockhold 2-0-4-4, Shook 1-0-1-2, Brown 2-1-1-5, Dawson 0-0-2-0, Coyan 0-0-1-0, Jurgensen 12-4-4-28, Ridge 2-0-2-4. TOTALS: 22-8-20-52.
