YATES CENTER — Humboldt High’s girls ended the 2023-24 regular season in style Tuesday.
The Lady Cubs blitzed host Yates Center to the tune of 20-5 in the first quarter and never looked back.
Humboldt’s 49-25 victory is the final game for both teams before their respective postseason tournaments begin.
Humboldt (12-8) is the fourth seed in the upcoming Class 3A Sub-State Tournament and will host fifth-seeded Iola (7-12) at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Humboldt Community Fieldhouse. The winner will take on either top-seed Heritage Christian Academy (17-3) or Osawatomie (1-19) in the tournament semifinals.
Anderson County, Wellsville, Prairie View and West Franklin comprise the other half of the tournament, which runs through March 2, with semifinal and final rounds at Wellsville.
“It’s exciting because this is a good group of girls who are fun to be around,” Humboldt head coach Aubrey Jones said.
Yates Center (3-17) is the sixth seed in the Class 1A-I Sub-State playoffs, and will face Madison/Hamilton (14-5) at 7 p.m. Friday. The winner will go against either Olpe (15-4) or Oswego (3-16) March 1 at Flinthills High School, site of the semifinal and final rounds. Flinthills (15-4) is the top seed.
Marmaton Valley (13-6) travels to Crest (14-5) for the right to take on Flinthills in semifinal action next week.
Familiar faces led Humboldt’s attack against the Wildcats on Tuesday.
Kenisyn Hottenstein scored 16 points and Shelby Shaughnessy 10. Chanlynn Wrestler came off the bench to score nine.
Humboldt’s lead stood at 26-8 at the break and 40-17 after three quarters.
“We used this game as an opportunity to get girls on the floor who deserve to get playing time, but don’t always get that opportunity.”
Yates Center, which was down to five healthy players in a loss last week at Crest, had its full roster at head coach Kevin Brown’s disposal.
“We played well, and we played hard,” Brown said. “Humboldt is just that good.”
Kinley Morrison scored 10 points and Cayten Cummings nine for the Wildcats.
