YATES CENTER — Humboldt High put the finishing touches on a scintillating regular season Tuesday.
The Cubs clinched the top seed in their upcoming Class 3A Sub-State Tournament with a 62-17 win over Yates Center.
Humboldt (18-2) hosts Prairie View (3-17) at 7 p.m. Monday at the Humboldt Community Fieldhouse. The winner advances to take on either No. 4 Iola (11-8) or Heritage Christian Academy (10-10) Feb. 29 at Wellsville, the host site for the tournament’s semifinal and final rounds.
Wellsville, Osawatomie, West Franklin and Anderson County are on the other side of the bracket.
The Wildcats (2-18) travel to Madison Hamilton at 7 p.m. Thursday to open the Class 1A-I Sub-State Tournament. The winner will take on No. 2 seed Crest (10-9) Feb. 29 in the semifinal at Flinthills High School, the host site for the final two rounds. Olpe, Oswego and Flinthills comprise the other half of the bracket.
Humboldt head coach David Taylor said the Cubs have successfully completed the first of what they hope are many goals for the 2023-24 season.
The first was to play well in the regular season, and to be healthy in doing it.
“The kids have had a really good regular season, but this is a totally different dog,” Taylor said. “When it comes to this time of year, you have to stay focused and try to keep the wheels from falling off if something bad happens.”
That Humboldt is a part of one of the toughest Sub-State brackets around should keep the team focused, Taylor said.
“It’s going to be very competitive,” he said. “We’ve tried to not look too far ahead. You can’t worry about what’s going on too much ahead of you.”
Humboldt sure wasn’t looking past Yates Center to end the regular season.
The Cubs raced to a 21-5 lead, largely on the strength of their pressure defense and inside presence of senior Sam Hull.
Hull hit 10 of 13 field goals to score a game-high 23 points.
Humboldt shot a blistering 60% from the field, and had assists of 22 of its 27 field goals.
“I was pleased with how we passed the ball well. We did some good things. Sam had a strong game. Avery Works did some nice things for us. All of the kids played well.”
Works scored 11 points with six rebounds. Colden Cook dished out seven assists to go with eight points. Blake Ellis and Mason Sterling had four and three steals, respectively.
