HUMBOLDT — A baseline jumper from St. Mary’s Colgan sophomore Brady Bettega capped a dizzying comeback, sending Humboldt High’s boys to their first loss of the season Thursday.
The Panthers outscored Humboldt 12-1 over the final 2 minutes of regulation, with Bettega’s bucket falling as time expired in a 48-46 victory.
The loss drops Humboldt to 7-1 on the season, although the Cubs aren’t going to dwell on the setback.
They were back in action Friday evening at Cherryvale and will be in Iola next week for the War on 54 Tournament, giving the Cubs five games over a nine-day period.
“The free throws were a telltale sign,” Humboldt head coach David Taylor said.
Humboldt opened the door for a possible comeback by missing 12 of 24 free throw attempts in the contest, including four misses out of six attempts in the game’s final two minutes.
Humboldt’s Blake Ellis connected on a free throw to push Humboldt ahead 45-36 with about two minutes left before Colgan’s Joe Lomshek hit a 3-pointer to pare the deficit to 45-39. Bettega promptly stole the inbound pass and turned it into a layup to make it a five-point game with 1:25 remaining.
Humboldt went 1 of 4 from the line over its next two possessions, while Bettega scored to make it 46-44 with 34 ticks remaining.
The Cubs were whistled for traveling on their next possession against the Colgan press, opening the door for Brady Crossland to tie the score with a basket with 27 seconds left.
Another bad pass from the Cubs was picked off by Lomshek in the final 5 seconds. Bettega threw in the inbound pass, streaked to the right elbow and caught a pass in stride as he weaved his way to the baseline.
His short jumper dropped through, and time expired before Humboldt could get off a desperation shot.
“It was a good ball game,” Taylor said. “The disappointing thing was we gave up more in the fourth quarter than we did the other three quarters. We stood around a little bit too much in the fourth quarter as we were trying to run the clock.”
Colgan took a 22-20 lead into halftime, but a strong third quarter from Humboldt put the Cubs in front, 38-31.
Colden Cook led the Cubs with 14 points, followed by Asher Hart with 12 and three assists and Ellis with 10. Mason Sterling scored six, and eight rebounds Tre Franklin had four. Hart and Avery Works each had three assists. Sterling had three steals
While disappointed with the loss, Taylor said Humboldt should be able to glean some positives from Thursday’s result, especially the fact that such a disappointment occurred in January and not March.
