Humboldt High’s girls opened the War on 54 Tournament in dominating fashion against Yates Center Tuesday.
The Lady Cubs scored the game’s first 15 points.
Then, after Yates Center’s Cayten Cummings got the Wildcats on the scoreboard with a free throw, Humboldt responded with another 15-0 run.
By the time the dust settled, the Lady Cubs emerged with a 70-9 romp, pushing Humboldt to a semifinal showdown with Cherryvale. Tipoff will be at about 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Iola Elementary School gymnasium.
Yates Center will play Anderson County at 3:30 p.m. Thursday at Iola High School.
The tournament wraps up Friday.
“We stressed we wanted to work on defense, and controlling our turnovers,” Lady Cub head coach Aubrey Jones said. “We’d been plagued with turnovers all year. But the girls slowed it down and took much better care of the ball. And our halfcourt defense was great.”
The slower pace wasn’t that much slower, as Humboldt repeatedly turned turnovers into points.
“They’re a good team, and I don’t want to take anything away from them, but we didn’t do a lot of things well,” Yates Center head coach Eric Busteed said. “We were slow and we didn’t rebound the ball very well. We couldn’t seem to get anything going.”
Humboldt continued its torrid pace after the break, stretching the lead to 60-6 by the end of the third quarter.
Skylar Hottenstein drained four 3-pointers to lead the way with 16 points, followed by Chanlynn Wrestler, who also hit four treys, with 14.
“We’d been talking with Skylar and Chanlynn about being willing to shoot. And if they miss, take another shot at it.”
McKenna Jones and Ricklyn Hillmon added eight points each.
Mckynzee Burkholder scored on a pair of field goals to lead Yates Center with five.
“The girls all kept working and kept trying,” Busteed said. “We’re just gonna keep working and come back Thursday and see what happens then.”
