HUMBOLDT — Some sterling inside play by Humboldt High’s Sam Hull made life miserable Thursday for Crest.
Hull erupted for a career-high 19 points and 13 rebounds as the Cubs prevailed, 47-35, in the second round of the Emprise Bank Humboldt Preseason Tournament.
Hull’s aggressiveness also created another headache for the Lancers and head coach Dylan Sporing — foul trouble.
Lancer standout Stetson Setter went to the bench with his fourth foul in the opening seconds of the third quarter. He re-entered the game in the fourth, only to see his night end moments later with a fifth foul.
Two other key cogs in the Lancer machine — Karter Miller and Ethan Godderz — wound up with four personals on the night.
“The foul trouble comes from not finishing possessions on the defensive end,” Sporing said. “They’d get a putback, or we’d be out of position. We take care of that, and it may be a different game.”
“Sam had a nice ball game,” Humboldt head coach David Taylor said. “He did some good things. It was good to see.”
Humboldt led from start to finish, but it wasn’t always pretty, Taylor noted.
“I thought they outplayed us,” Taylor said. “They were doing what they do better offensively than what we were doing defensively.”
Problem was, many of Crest’s shots weren’t dropping.
“It did seem like there was a lid on the basket,” Sporing lamented. “We showed a little bit of heart. We talked about grit and we didn’t roll over and die. We continued to fight.”
Hull scored seven of Humboldt’s 12 points in the second quarter, including a key 3-point play during a 9-0 Cub spurt to push the lead to 25-13.
But Crest responded each time the Cubs threatened to pull away.
Godderz drilled a 3-pointer late in the half, Setter scored inside and Jacob Zimmerman’s free throw made it 26-21 at the break.
Hull and Colden Cook each found openings inside as the Cubs slowly built their lead to 38-28 by the end of the third period.
The spread would have been wider had it not been for Crest’s Karter Miller, who made it a point to attack the basket relentlessly. Miller had five of Crest’s seven points in the third quarter, en route to a team-high 15 points.
