HUMBOLDT — Lopsided scores can be deceiving.
In Tuesday night’s contest between the Humboldt Cubs and Marmaton Valley Wildcats the Cubs seemingly had little trouble coming out on top 63-40. Winning by 20 or more can give off that vibe.
However, the game was not without its ups and downs for both teams.
Both came out shaky, struggling to get some offensive momentum going. The Cubs worked their way to a 10-point lead late in the first quarter.
While Marmaton Valley did not have the guns to regain that lost ground for most of the next two quarters, they also kept Humboldt’s lead in check thanks to some tenacious rebounding and Humboldt’s 25 turnovers.
“With as many turnovers as we had, they had something to do with that,” Cubs head coach David Taylor said of the Wildcats.
“We let them have way too many rebounds, especially with our height advantage. I thought the Moran kids scrapped, all four quarters. And at times we got caught watching the ball,” he said.
In that span, Wildcat senior Josh Wise came alive by scoring 17 points. Wise led a continuous assault on the rim getting all of his points either in the paint or from the free throw line.
“That was a huge bright spot,” said Marmaton Valley head coach Jason Bauer said. “I’ve been riding him a little bit. He has a quick first step so he can get to the bucket. For only being 5’10” he can get to the bucket and today he proved that. We need that all year and we need others to step up.”
But where Marmaton Valley had the one dynamic player, Humboldt took refuge in three led by junior guard Teryn Johnson who had 18 points including four threes in the first quarter that kept Humboldt afloat.
“In the first half when he was hitting from the outside, they were all good shots,” Taylor said. “They were within what we want to do. We were reversing the ball. Now the ones that he misses were the ones where he tries to do it off the dribble. He did some pretty good things.”
Sophomore Connor Haviland also chipped in 15 and junior Tucker Hurst had 13 and both were huge late in the third and into the third quarter as the Cubs started getting steals and cashing in transition buckets to pull away from the Wildcats for good.
Now both teams have the next several weeks off for winter break and both coaches are hoping to see some self-improvement in that stretch.
For Humboldt, Taylor wants to see the turnover count cut significantly down.
“We’re still a work in progress,” Taylor said. “We’ve still got a long way to go. Our decision making could be better. We need to spend more time playing in practice because when we get sped up, our decision making gets suspect at times.”
For Marmaton Valley, the Wildcats have only won a single game this year and that was the only game where they’ve scored 50 or more points. Finding that edge offensively is something that Bauer needs his team to do to get things going in the right direction.
“We’ve got to work harder in practice,” Bauer said. “Our varsity needs to make our JV better and our JV has to work harder to make our varsity better. We’ve got to bring more intensity in practice so it will carry over to game days.”
Humboldt stands at 5-1 so far this year with league play opening up on Jan. 9 versus Fredonia while Marmaton Valley is 1-4 so far with a game versus Crest waiting for them when they return from winter break.
JUNIOR VARSITY RESULTS
The Humboldt boys JV beat Marmaton Valley 55-24. Isiah Coronado and Caleb Coronado led the way with 15 and 14 points each for the Cubs while Caiden Elliot and Collin Dudley each scored seven for the Wildcats.
Humboldt (17-13-14-19—63) (2pt/3pt-FT-F-TP) Johnson 3/4-0-2-18, Haviland 7/0-1-3-15, Hurst 6/0-1-3-13, Murrow 3/0-0-1-6, Gillespie 2/0-0-1-4, Coronado 1/0-0-0-2, Korte 1/0-0-1-2, Daniels 1/0-0-3-2, Seufert 0/0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 24/4-3-14-63.
Marmaton Valley (7-10-11-12—40) (2pt/3pt-FT-F-TP) Wise 7/0-3-2-17, Griffith 3/1-1-0-10, Pugh 2/0-1-4-5, Ellior 0/1-0-1-3, Hall 1/0-0-0-2, Heskett 1/0-0-2-2, Smith 0/0-1-3-1, Heope 0/0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 14/2-6-14-40.
PHOTO: Sophomore Cub guard Conor Haviland drives down the court while Marmaton Valley’s Josh Wise trails in Humboldt’s 63-40 win on Tuesday. REGISTER/TIMOTHY EVERSON
