NEODESHA After struggles on the boards plagued Humboldt Highs Cubs last week, head coach David Taylor made rebounding a key focus in practice.
Message delivered.
The Cubs outrebounded host Neodesha 40-22. And even though the Cubs struggled mightily from the free throw line, the tune of 5 of 20, Humboldt still cruised to a 62-47 victory.
The win lifts Humboldts record to 3-2 on the season. The Cubs wrap up the pre-Christmas portion of their schedule Tuesday at Marmaton Valley.
Wed been working on checking off and blocking out all week, Taylor said. We had a much better effort on the boards.
Humboldt cruised early, leading 39-27 at the break, before withstanding a second half Bluestreak challenge. Neodesha cut the gap to 47-39 by the end of the third quarter, before the Cubs slammed the door in the final period.
Humboldts one-two punch of Bo Bigelow and Tucker Hurst delivered most of the damage. Bigelow led the way with 23 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. Hurst was just behind with 16 points, 12 boards and four assists. Caleb Coronado and Xavier Bauer followed with nine and seven points, respectively. Conor Haviland also had six points and four assists. Bauer notched a pair of steals.
Bo played a pretty good game on offense and defense, Taylor said.
Donald Booths 20 points paced Neodesha, followed by TAdre Kinnards nine.
There was other good and bad on the stat sheet.
Humboldt committed 16 turnovers, while dishing out 23 assists.
The 16 turnovers is more than Id like, but our 23 assists showed we played unselfishly, Taylor said. Overall, were just not playing as well as we could be, but were taking steps. We need to do a better job of stopping the dribble drive. And weve been struggling with our free throws all year.
Humboldt won both the junior varsity (56-38) and freshman (55-48) contests as well. Josh Hull and Taylor Lassman scored 12 and 11 points, respectively, to lead the JV. Top scorers in the freshman contest were Kaiden Barnett, 16, and Drew Wilhite, 11.
HUMBOLDTS Lady Cubs dropped a 48-46 decision to Neodesha, to fall to 1-4 on the season. No other information was available by press time.
Both teams will travel to Marmaton Valley Tuesday.
Boys
Humboldt (17-22-8-1562) (FG/3pt): I. Coronado 0-0-2-0, Haviland 2/1-0-2-7, Bigelow 8/2-1-3-23, Hull 0-0-1-0, Hurst 7-2-1-16, C. Coronado 4-1-3-9, Bauer 3-1-3-7, Lassman 0-0-1-0. TOTALS: 24/3-5-16-62.
Neodesh (11-16-12-847) (FG/3pt): Strange 0-0-1-0, Kinnard 3-3-4-9, Booth 3/3/5-4-20, Wallace 1-2-1-4, Talmadge 0/1-0-4-3, Aldrich 1/1-0-4-5, Ellis 3-0-0-6. TOTALS: 11/5-10-18-47.
