PLEASANTON — An overwhelming victory for Humboldt High’s boys over the Altoona-Midway Jets Tuesday night gave the Cubs a chance to spread the wealth across the scoreboard. WITH THE game never in doubt, Humboldt boys coach David Taylor was able to substitute freely throughout the contest. Crest 70, Pleasanton 37 Girls Pleasanton 52, Crest 23 A-M boys (4-3-13-3—23)
All of the players who suited up for Humboldt scored at least two points — 14 players total.
Humboldt led 21-4 after one period and 54-7 by halftime of a 93-23 win to open Pleasanton’s midseason tournament.
The victory sets up a semifinal matchup with Central Heights at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at Pleasanton High School’s north gymnasium.
In other tournament action, second-seeded Crest rolled past host Pleasanton 70-37 and Prairie View defeated Jayhawk-Linn 54-41.
On the girls side, Humboldt’s furious comeback against Uniontown came up short 53-40, the Crest High Lady Lancers fell to Pleasanton 52-23, Jayhawk-Linn defeated Central Heights 43-36 and Prairie View downed Altoona-Midway 53-10.
“It gave us a chance to put some different combinations on the floor,” Taylor said. “We had younger kids playing with older ones.”
All of Humboldt’s starters had found the bench by the start of the third quarter.
Taylor noted that nearly every player who suited up also had a rebound and assist for the Cubs. Thirty of Humboldt’s 41 field goals came from assists.
Tanner McNutt led the Cubs with 13 points, followed by Nathan Whitcomb with 12 and Noah Thornbrugh with 10. Hunter Murrow contributed eight points and five rebounds, Kason Siemens also had eight points. Caleb D’Armond and Trey Johnson had seven apiece. Johnson also had four steals, while Thornbrugh had five steals and five assists.
As a team, Humboldt out-rebounded the Jets 30-5, recorded 25 steals and committed only seven turnovers.
“Everybody played hard and everybody played well,” Taylor said.
Cody Boles scored nine to pace the Jets.
Host Pleasanton’s strategy was simple against Crest’s boys.
The Blu-Jays deployed a box-and-one defense to target Lancer standout Kyle Hammond.
The strategy worked, in one sense. Hammond was limited to five field goals.
“They did a good job of keeping Kyle from scoring, but they didn’t do as good a job of keeping him out of the offense,” Crest head coach Travis Hermreck said. “Kyle did a great job of finding the open man.”
In this case, the open teammates tended to be either Brock Ellis or Jordan Morton.
Morton poured in 24 points, while Ellis scored 20 to pace Crest in the victory.
The victory sets up a semifinal matchup against Prairie View at 8:30 p.m. Thursday in semifinal action in Pleasanton’s north gymnasium.
“We had been struggling a bit at the offensive end, but tonight the boys played very well together,” Hermreck said.
Hammond still managed to score 13 points for the Lancers.
Crest led 17-10 after one quarter and 38-19 at the break. The Lancer margin grew to 53-30 by the end of the third quarter. Crest ended the game with a 17-7 run.
Cole Campbell scored nine points to pace Pleasanton.
Uniontown 53,
Humboldt 40
The Lady Cubs trailed Uniontown by 17 points in the second half before slicing the Lady Eagles’ advantage to three.
But Uniontown converted enough free throws down the stretch to douse Humboldt’s comeback hopes.
Uniontown’s 53-40 win relegates the Lady Cubs to the consolation side of the Pleasanton Midseason Tournament bracket.
Humboldt will face Altoona-Midway at 4 p.m. Thursday in Pleasanton’s south gymnasium.
“I couldn’t be more proud of the whole team effort,” Humboldt coach Sherri Nelson said.
Leading Humboldt was Sheri Middleton with 16 points, 14 rebounds, four blocks and three steals. Lakota Wilson followed with nine points and a steal. Brea Klin delivered five points, three rebounds and a steal. Delaney Umholtz had four points, a rebound and a steal. Kayle Riebel had four points and four rebounds. Whitney Strack delivered two points and a rebound.
Pleasanton’s victory relegates the Lady Lancers to the consolation side of the bracket. Crest will take on Central Heights at 7 p.m. Thursday in Pleasanton’s south gymnasium.
Humboldt boys (21-33-25-14—93)
Altoona-Midway (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Boles 3/1-0-0-9, Marple 0-0-2-0, Engelman 0/1-0-2-3, Brown 0-2-3-2, Carter 0-0-2-0, Huffman 2-0-0-4, Phillips 1/1-0-3-5, Walker 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 6/3-2-13-23.
Humboldt (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Vanatta 1-2-2-4, McNutt 5/1-0-1-13, H. Murrow 4-0-0-8, Carpenter 3-0-3-6, A. Murrow 2-0-0-4, Whitcomb 4-4-1-12, Sellman 2-0-0-4, D’Armond 3-1-0-7, Crawford 1-0-1-2, Johnson 2/1-0-1-7, Meins 2-0-0-4, Osborn 2-0-1-4, Thornbrugh 5-0-1-10, Siemens 3-2-0-8. TOTALS: 39/2-9-11-93.
Pleasanton boys (10-9-11-7—37)
Crest boys (17-21-15-17—70)
Pleasanton (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Johnson 0/1-0-3-3, Bauer 1-0-1-2, Baker 2-0-0-4, Cole Campbell 4-1-1-9, Laver 0-2-2-2, Cale Campbell 0/2-0-0-6, Coffman 1/1-0-0-5, Inman 3-0-5-6. TOTALS: 11/4-3-12-37.
Crest (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Boone 2-0-4-4, Green 3-0-0-6, Strickler 1-0-1-2, Morton 5/4-2-2-24, Hammond 2/3-0-2-13, Ellis 9-2-3-20, Ramsey 0-1-1-1. TOTALS: 22/7-5-13-70.
Cubs, Lancers take home victories
