Humboldt Middle School’s boys team continued their season with a road trip to Leon-Bluestem Middle on Monday night. The Cubs split with Bluestem, winning the A game 28-20 but dropping the B game 25-21.
In the A game, the Cubs came out sluggish, only scoring two points in the opening quarter, while the Lions roared to an eight-point opener. Those roles were reversed in the second quarter as the Cubs defense played sound basketball and gave the offense chances to succeed. They did succeed, as the Cubs rattled off an 11-2 run in the second to take a 13-10 lead going to the half.
Humboldt dominated the boards on both sides of the ball, out-rebounding the Lions 35-19, almost single-handedly by Collin Cook who had 17 boards as part of another big night.
After holding the Lions to two points in the second, the Cubs defense didn’t let up, only allowing three in the second quarter to extend their lead.A 6-3 fourth sealed the deal for the Cubs as their suffocating defense was too much for the Lions to overcome and the Humboldt shooters shot too well to be contained.
Collin Cook scored nine points and had three steals. Creed Shannon scored eight. Grady Elder scored six. Braxton Gray scored three. Layne Ellison scored two.
In the B game, Humboldt came out hot, going on a 7-3 run to open the game. The Cubs’ run would soon be halted however, as the Lions defense caused Humboldt to stall out in the second quarter, only allowing the Cubs to score two points before halftime. Bluestem led 13-9 at the break.
Despite out-rebounding the Lions, Humboldt wasn’t able to convert many of those into extra points. After an eight point third from the Cubs, Bluestem roared back with a nine point fourth to pull ahead.
Humboldt had 13 shots at free throws, but only converted three of those into points, losing out on easy points that could have made a difference in the final score.
Thatcher Mueller scored 13 points and Hudson Rees scored eight points with five rebounds.
