HUTCHINSON — As they have all season, the Cubs fought valiantly, but for only the third time all season, that fight wasn’t rewarded with a victory.
Humboldt was eliminated from the 3A State Tournament on Wednesday in Hutchinson by Nemaha Central, 47-37.
After a back-and-forth first quarter found the Cubs trailing 11-7, Humboldt caught fire in the second quarter. They were able to up the tempo against a bigger Thunder squad and force several steals which led to easy baskets for Humboldt and fouls for the Thunder.
The Cubs ended the second quarter on a 11-2 run and took an 18-15 lead into intermission.
“That second quarter, we made sure that we were boxing out and we followed our scouting report,” Humboldt coach Aubrey Jones said. “We were doing all the little things right and those always add up to the big things.”
To add to the positives for the Cubs, senior forward Annalise Whitcomb had completely outplayed Nemaha Central leading-scorer Laura Macke in the first half. Whitcomb had eight points and was all over the floor creating opportunities for her teammates, meanwhile, Macke had six points, but seemed flustered by the speed that the Cubs were playing at.
Humboldt senior Makaylah McCall had been limited to just two points in the first half, so it seemed that if the Cubs could get their star going in the second half then nothing could stop them.
McCall did get herself going in the third quarter, but so did the entire Thunder offense.
The Thunder opened the half on an 11-0 run and grabbed the lead.
McCall battled back with nine points in the quarter and scored on a layup late in the third to get the Cubs back within 33-29.
Unfortunately for the Cubs, the Nemaha Central inside duo of Kaley Dalinghaus and Macke was just too much for the Cubs, who were giving up several inches to both players.
The Thunder scored 20 points in the third quarter and their post duo accounted for 17 of those points.
Meanwhile, despite McCall’s nine, the Cubs only had 11 total points in the third.
“In the second half, we got away from our scouting report and we started forcing stuff,” Jones said. “We weren’t handling the press properly and we got away from our game plan and then it got to the point in was a bit of a landslide and we went into panic mode.”
Despite that tough quarter, the Cubs remained within six points entering the fourth quarter, but things quickly took a turn for the worse.
On the first possession of the quarter, McCall had a tipped ball got awkwardly off her hand and she gripped her fingers in apparent pain several times.
