PLEASANTON — There were two themes for Humboldt in the first half of Thursday’s semifinal of the Pleasanton Tournament against Heritage Christian: Turnovers and Tilar Wells.
Luckily for the Cubs, the shooting ability of the latter was nearly enough to cancel out the former and allowed Humboldt to rally for a 49-33 win.
The game began terribly for the Cubs. They were playing in Pleasanton’s older gym which has rims that creaked so loudly that they appeared to be older than the combined ages of the 10 players on the court.
With subpar shooting conditions and without its starting point guard — junior Rylan Wilhite has a stress fracture in her foot and is expected to be out until sub-state — Humboldt struggled. They committed far too many turnovers for coach Aubrey Jones’ liking and when they did get a shot off they couldn’t seem to buy a bucket — with the exception of Wells.
“Everyone has to step up a little bit because we are missing Rylan,” Wells said.
After Humboldt fell behind 8-3, the senior lined up and splashed in a three-pointer to get the Cubs back within a possession.
“I felt good,” Wells said. “My shots haven’t been falling this year yet, so it felt good to come out and put up big points for our team.”
Humboldt again floundered though and the Chargers grabbed a 14-6 lead, but again Wells came to the rescue for the Cubs.
Back-to-back three pointers — including one off of an inbounds play — cut the lead back down to 14-12, but with Wells having nine of the Cubs 12 points, they were going to have to find points from other players to pull off the victory.
“Tilar was absolutely huge,” Jones said. “We knew that she is capable of that, we were just waiting for her to remember that she is capable of that. It couldn’t have come at a better time.”
And just like that, those other players stepped up.
“Once someone gets going and shooting well, the next person gets going,” Humboldt guard Aricah McCall said. “I think it is amazing how everyone follows Tilar. She is a big leader for our team.”
Humboldt junior Lizzie Myers tied the game at 14-14 with a baskets and later Myers gave the team a 17-16 lead with another basket.
Heritage Christian scored to end the half and took an 18-17 lead into the locker room, but all the momentum was clearly on the side of the Cubs.
“We were pretty fired up,” McCall said. “We knew it was time to finish strong.”
