The question of which schools basketball program would carry the sack of Christmas cheer into the holiday break was settled Tuesday night when the boys and girls teams from Humboldt soundly thumped the hometown Marmaton Valley Wildcats. But the lopsided victories in both cases told only half the story.
BOYS
For 16 minutes, we played our best basketball of the season, declared the undeterred Wildcat head coach Jason Bauer after his teams 59-41 loss to the visiting Cubs. We keep striving to get better, and we did get better. Not only did Marmaton Valley hold the line against the heavily favored Cubs, they flirted with victory. At least for awhile. Led by Gage Griffiths six first-quarter points, the smaller Wildcats finished the first period up 17-15.
And while Griffiths hand never cooled in the second quarter he hit two more big threes before the half Humboldt senior Bo Bigelow was the real fire-starter. The rawboned guard, having incurred two or three misses from beyond the arc, made the smart adjustment and went in search of his points off the dribble. It worked. Late in the second quarter, Bigelow went on a sparkling 12-point run a successful and-1 drive into traffic, a mid-range jumper off the bounce, a floater in the lane, a layup off of a fastbreak, and, finally, a long three. Bigelow would go on to lead all scorers on the night with 24 points. I thought Bo played decent, said Humboldt head coach Dave Taylor. Now, one shouldnt walk away with the false impression that Coach Taylor was pleased with his teams performance on the night. He wasnt. At all. But for Bigelow, at least, he reserved a few kind words. Sure, I thought Bo had a good game.
Between Bigelows hot hand and the Cubs exacting half-court defense, Humboldt managed to regain the lead, 31-23, going into halftime, and they never really looked back.
We came out flat to start the third quarter and then [Humboldt] went on an 8-0 run, reflected Bauer. We just dont have the weapons to answer that. The Cubs continued to trap Marmaton Valleys guards in the half-court set, which threw the home teams offense off balance, allowing Humboldts longer, faster guards to penetrate the passing lanes and nab a handful of mistimed passes, which they were able to convert into easy layups on the other end.
We dont see a lot of teams that aggressive on defense, continued Bauer. Weve got to learn to step through the double-teams, and we talked about that. I told them before the game it was going to be aggressive out there. Weve just got to play smart. And weve got to be more physical. Were not deep like them. Weve just got to be able to answer their intensity and their aggressiveness, which is something were not used to. Overall, though, I was happy with our output.
As for Coach Taylors post-mortem mood: My patience is at an all-time low. His Cubs took this game for granted. They thought they could simply walk into the Marmaton Valley gym and walk out with a win, easy-peasy. We didnt play very good team defense, which you can control, and we didnt rebound, which you can control. The two things they could control, they didnt do, and thats why Im frustrated with them. They were simply going through the motions, said the exasperated coach. They were trying to get to their Christmas break a little early.
The Cubs face Fredonia in their first game back after the break. It will be interesting to see what gifts Coach Taylor has prepared for his players in the practices leading up to that game.
HUMBOLDT: After Bigelows game-high 24, the Cubs next leading scorer was Caleb Coronado, who had 11. Senior Tucker Hurst had nine; junior Conor Haviland, eight; Xavier Bauer, three; Ryan Sellman and Kyle ONeal each scored a bucket in the fourth quarter. // MARMATON VALLEY: Gage Griffith, 16; Caiden Elliott, nine; Alec Cochran, six; Garrett Henderson, five; Isaac Heskett, who battled foul trouble most of the game, had four.
GIRLS
The disparity in size, athleticism and depth was even more pronounced on the girls side, where Coach Aubrey Jones Humboldt Cubs clobbered the hometown team from Marmaton Valley by a final score of 64-43.
But there was parity in effort. The Wildcats, led by hard-nosed junior Bailey Griffith, kept up with the Cubs to the best of their abilities, even pulling within nine points at halftime, but, in the end, there were just too many weapons arrayed against them.
