HUTCHINSON — As Tanner McNutt soared toward the goal, a pursuing Scott City High defender could do little more than watch. SATURDAY’S contest boiled down to defensive stops, or Humboldt’s lack of them, to be specific. “WE’RE LOSING some special seniors, some good seniors,” Taylor said.
Sure enough, McNutt sent home an emphatic dunk, giving the Humboldt High senior a season-high 28 points in the Cubs’ biggest game of the year.
While the basket offered a rousing sendoff for McNutt — he fouled out of the contest seconds later — it did little to remove the sting of Humboldt’s first and only defeat of the 2012-13 season.
Scott City took the early lead and never looked back in Saturday’s Class 3A state championship game, downing Humboldt 74-55. The loss put an end to the Cubs’ storybook season, which began with 25 straight wins before Saturday.
The loss did little to douse the Cubs’ memorable run through the postseason playoffs, including back-to-back overtime wins to prevail at substate. Humboldt was hoping to win the school’s first state title since 1969.
Instead, Saturday’s win clinched Scott City’s third state crown in a row, the first such Class 3A boys school to accomplish the feat.
“It wasn’t supposed to end this way,” Cub senior Noah Thornbrugh said.
That it took one of the state’s best 3A teams in recent hardwood history to defeat the Cubs may lessen the pain later, Thornbrugh said, but was of little solace immediately after the game.
Humboldt coach David Taylor spoke about the Cubs’ success, on and off the court.
The key, he said, was that a talented group of individuals bought into a team effort.
“That’s something you have to fight in basketball,” Taylor said. “If you go ‘me, me, me,’ you’re not going to be successful. But these guys sacrificed for the good of the group.”
After limiting Sacred Heart and Silver Lake to 37 and 35 points, respectively, in their first two state playoff games, Humboldt saw Scott City top that threshold in the second quarter.
The Beavers scored inside, outside and seemingly everywhere in between as part of a 13-2 run to start the contest.
“I think we were a little shell-shocked at the start, but then we wiggled out of it, and did some good things,” Taylor said.
Thornbrugh started the long road back with buckets on consecutive possessions, then McNutt scored to pull the Cubs within 13-8 midway through the first quarter.
“It was instinct,” Thornbrugh said. “We started doing what we were supposed to do.”
The teams traded points into the second quarter. Nathan Whitcomb and McNutt scored seven apiece in the second period, and Humboldt was within 28-23 before a quick 5-0 Beaver run put the lead back into double digits.
McNutt’s 3-pointer with 11 seconds left in the half pulled Humboldt within 42-32, but Scott City’s Brett O’Neil drained a fadeaway jumper while falling to the floor as time expired to push the lead to 12.
Scott City came out of the gates quickly in the second half, using a 10-2 run to push its lead to 20.
“Honestly, we didn’t do a good job on defense,” Thornbrugh said. “They got out on transition, and we’d have a player looking back trying to find out who he was guarding when they’d have somebody ready to shoot. You can’t do that.”
McNutt wound up scoring seven of Humboldt’s nine points in the third, which ended with Scott City on top 60-41.
The lead ballooned to as much as 26 in the fourth quarter before Humboldt ended the game with an 8-1 run. McNutt accounted for five of the points, the last coming on his slam.
“It was our last game, and I wanted to put it all out there,” he said. “I’d missed a dunk earlier. I didn’t want to miss that one.”
“Tanner played great,” Taylor said. “Everybody played hard. The effort was there.”
McNutt added five steals to his 28 points. Thornbrugh and Whitcomb added 12 points apiece. Thornbrugh also had nine rebounds, while Whitcomb and McNutt added five and four rebounds, respectively. Hunter Murrow dished out three assists.
Scott City put four players in double figures, all by the end of the first half. The Beavers shot 61 percent from the field in the first two quarters and 55 percent for the game.
“They’re good,” Taylor said. “All the teams that get this far are good.”
Drew Kite led Scott City with 23 points, followed by Joseph Meyer with 20. Trey O’Neil scored 17 and Brett O’Neil 13. The Beavers also out-rebounded Humboldt 40 to 28.
In addition to Thornbrugh, McNutt and Whitcomb, Humboldt also is losing Trey Johnson, Sam Aguirre and Blake Crawford from its roster.
Still, remains reason for optimism.
Taylor noted Humboldt also had successful junior varsity and C team seasons this year.
“This has been a very enjoyable season,” he said. “It says we’re going in the right direction. The seniors have helped lay the foundation.”
“This year, it all just came together for us, offensively and defensively,” Thornbrugh agreed. “We didn’t have to count on one person to do it all.”
Scott City (20-24-16-14—74)
Humboldt (14-18-9-14—55)
Scott City (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): B. O’Neil 5/1-0-1-13, T. O’Neil 4/3-0-4-17, Yager 0-1-1-1, Hess 0-0-4-0, Habiger 0-0-3-0, Wilson 0-0-3-0, Meyer 8-4-4-20, Kite 10-3-2-23. TOTALS: 27/4-8-20-74.
Humboldt (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Vanatta 0-0-1-0, McNutt 5/5-3-5-28, Whitcomb 5-2-2-12, Crawford 0-0-1-0, Johnson 0-2-3-2, Thornbrugh 5-2-4-12, Siemens 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 15/5-10-16-55.
Cubs come up short in title game bid
