HUMBOLDT — A crucial six-point swing put Humboldt High behind the 8-ball Friday.
The Cubs had erased a second-half deficit and were knotted with Erie, 27-27, toward the end of the third quarter.
Humboldt was hoping to hold the ball for the last shot of the period, but a turnover followed by a Red Devil 3-pointer at the buzzer pushed the visitors on top, 30-27.
Then Erie opened the fourth quarter in the same manner, by drilling a trey, and suddenly Humboldt trailed by six.
“That put them in the driver’s seat,” Humboldt head coach David Taylor said.
Neither team could connect from the field beyond that as Erie emerged with a hard-fought 37-29 victory.
“It was a good game,” Taylor said. “Both teams defended pretty well. I was real pleased with how we played up until the end. We did some good things.”
Erie led 9-7 at the end of the first quarter and 20-15 at the break. The Cubs’ Drew Wilhite erupted for seven third-quarter points to help Humboldt knot the score before things went south.
He wound up with a team-high 16 points, six rebounds and four steals. Trey Sommer added 10 points and four rebounds.
Kaiden Barnett hauled in a team-high seven boards, while Levi McGowen dished out three assists.
Erie’s Eric Dillinger led a balanced Red Devil scoring attack with nine points.
“They’ve got some good size inside that makes it tough,” Taylor said, noting only four Humboldt players notched the score sheet. “The kids played hard. I probably felt better after tonight’s game than I did last night (in a win over Crest). Tonight was a positive.”
Humboldt prevailed, 40-30, in the junior varsity contest. Asher Hart led the way with 10 points.
IN GIRLS action, Humboldt took control by holding Erie scoreless for nearly 11 minutes spanning the third and fourth quarters to win, 39-35.
The Red Devils led 25-20 at the break, but didn’t score until after the Lady Cubs rattled off 11 straight points to lead, 31-25. Erie hit a 3-pointer with 5 minutes left in the game to cut the spread to 31-28, but Humboldt’s Karsyn Haviland responded with a 3-pointer of her own to re-establish a six-point cushion.
The Red Devils drew no closer than three points down the stretch.
