ARMA The task was tall for the Humboldt girls Friday night when they laced up their shoes and took the court to take on the top-seeded Pittsburg-St. Marys Colgan Lady Panthers in the 2A substate semifinals.
For 31 minutes, the Lady Cubs seemed more than capable of pulling the upset but in the final minute, Colgan was able to put some points together and separate, leaving the Lady Cubs with a season-ending 43-37 defeat.
They executed, head coach Aubrey Jones said. They knew what the game plan was and credit to my kids, they punched until the very last second.
The loss dropped the Lady Cubs to 12-8.
Humboldt took an early four-point lead on the Lady Panthers in the first quarter which proved to be the largest lead either team would have until the end of the game.
At the end of the first quarter, both teams were tied. Same with the second quarter. The third quarter saw Colgan leave with a one-point advantage but one that was quickly erased minutes into the fourth quarter.
Neither team had their best shooting night on Friday and the turnover numbers for both teams were high in number. The game was a physical slog that was fought in the trenches and at the free throw line.
Colgan went to the line 11 times in the fourth quarter and made nine of them while Humboldt went just four times and hit two. That seven extra points proved to be what did in the Lady Cubs.
We just went cold in the second half, Jones said. And then we gave up some fouls we probably shouldnt have. We were trying to keep them off the line because we knew how lethal they were from it. We ran just ran out of clock.
Humboldt tied the game up with 2:45 to play at 36 off a lay-up from Morgan Mauk. A little more than a minute later, senior Savanna Puckett scored the Lady Cubs last point of the game.
From there, the Lady Panthers scored seven straight in the final minute and half including five free throws to close out the game and take the win.
We knew going into the game that it was going to be down to the wire, Jones said. We were locked up together until really that last minute but then the ball started falling for them. Thats really what it came down to.
Sophomore Jada Dangerfield led Humboldt with nine points followed by eight for senior Aricah McCall.
The Lady Cubs lose a big batch of six seniors to graduation including Mauk, McCall, Puckett, Maggie Johnson, Kaylie Johnson and Melanie Hallacy.
Theyve been huge for us, Jones said. And theyve been so good about encouraging our younger kids and setting great examples and being vocal. Theyre one of those where I think if I told them to run through a wall, they might try. Itll be a huge gap to fill but I think more than anything, they left such a great example for the younger kids to try to live up to and try to follow. I cant say enough good things about them.
