HUMBOLDT – Humboldt High’s girls and boys opened Humboldt’s Preseason Tournament against Uniontown Tuesday. The girls lost 48-41. The boys won 53-28.
Humboldt’s boys commanded the lead from the opening tip-off, storming out to a 5-1 lead 5 minutes into the contest. Humboldt saw the ball well, executed good passes, and set up good shots. Humboldt’s Trey Sommer was on fire, scoring 10 points and making both free throws.
Once Uniontown began to score from the paint, it looked as if the Eagles had found a groove. The quarter ended with Humboldt up 23-8.
In the second quarter, the Cubs took advantage of good rebounding, setting up second-chance shots and making those shots with ease. The Eagles struggled to score in the second quarter, plagued by bad shot selection. Humboldt held its foe to five points in the second quarter. The Cubs led 37-13 at the half.
Uniontown raced out to a 6-0 lead in the second half after making a few adjustments during the break, closing the Humboldt lead down to 37-19. Both teams came out more aggressively and rebounded better. Humboldt ended the half on a 10-0 run.
Humboldt led 49-22 heading into the fourth quarter.
The fourth quarter was dominated by Uniontown, but at that point, the game was out of reach. Uniontown ended the game on a 6-4 run. Both teams ran the clock out in the final quarter.
“I feel like we got a little lazy,” said Humboldt head coach David Taylor. “We could have gotten more fortunate and not given up as many buckets. There were a couple of breakdowns we had when I thought we gave them an easy bucket. Other than that, it was a good start. Our defensive intensity was good.”
Humboldt’s boys junior varsity defeated Uniontown 24-10. Logan Page led the way with six points. Colden Cook had five points. Mateo Miller scored four points. Tristian Ballin, Jacob Harrington, and Avery Works each scored two points.
IN THE girls’ game, both teams started slowly, but Humboldt pulled out to a 4-3 run over the first 6:42 of the game. Uniontown’s Danielle Howard hit a three-pointer that started a 5-2 run. The run gave Uniontown a 9-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, Humboldt started off with bad shot selection and wasn’t able to get second-chance shots off rebounds. A McKenna Jones three-pointer 4:00 into the quarter broke up a 9-6 Uniontown lead as Humboldt tried to claw its way back into the game. Shortly after, the Cubs took their first lead since early in the first quarter, leading 20-18 with 1:22 left in the quarter, thanks to an 8-0 run sparked by the Jones field goal.
Just before the end of the half, Humboldt’s Karley Wools extended with a short jumper after Uniontown broke the Humboldt run. Humboldt led at the half 24-20.
The third quarter saw the teams trade the lead, despite lackluster shooting very well in the quarter. Uniontown stormed back to take the lead, starting the half on a 7-0 run fueled by a three-pointer by Howard. Uniontown held the lead for the majority of the quarter until Humboldt’s Carsyn Haviland pulled up from deep and hit a three-pointer to put the Cubs up 28-27 at the end of the quarter.
Shortly into the fourth, Wools hit a mid-range jumper to spark a 5-2 Humboldt run. Humboldt was up 33-29 with 6:59 when Uniontown’s Howard hit a jumper to go up 34-33. The two teams traded free throws, for the next minute. Wools made two for Humboldt, and then Uniontown’s Howard scored two of her own to take the lead back. The last four minutes of the game saw the lead change even more. Humboldt went up 37-36 thanks to a jumper by Jones. Uniontown hit back with a Reese Gorman three-pointer. Uniontown didn’t look back, despite a surge by Humboldt. Uniontown went to the free-throw line six times with less than a minute left, making all six shots to seal the game.
“We ran out of gas. When you run out of gas, you are going to have mental errors,” said Humboldt head coach Aubrey Jones. “We had six girls that wore themselves down to the bone and gave us everything they had. We have one out sick, our point guard is out. After that, the six of them just went and did their jobs.”
