HUMBOLDT — On a night where the Cubs found themselves behind the eight-ball early, it was a senior with the experience of a freshman bombing threes that helped Humboldt along to an eventual 55-47 win over Uniontown in the first round of their Emprise Bank basketball tournament on Tuesday.
The Cubs found themselves out of sorts on both ends of the ball to start the game.
Shots refused to fall for the Cubs and the Eagles took advantage, gaining an early 8-0 lead.
Little by little, the Cubs regained their footing and went full speed ahead led by senior guard Jacob Barker who came off the bench in the first quarter and started to bomb it from outside, hitting three 3-pointers in the first half on the way to a 16-point performance
“We weren’t getting the ball inside at all,” Humboldt head coach Dave Taylor said. “Fortunately we hit some threes. Jacob Barker came off the bench and was a big spark for us which was great to see because this is his first year playing basketball in high school. It just seemed like we were waiting for the other shoe to fall. We had no rhythm on offense at times and defensively I didn’t think we played well at all. We were lethargic and not very crisp but I also think Uniontown had something to do with that.”
While Uniontown was starting to give way on defense, they were still full speed ahead on the offensive end led by 6’3” senior Ben George who worked inside and out scoring 21 points and giving the Cubs posts a fit for the majority of the game.
“He’s a tough matchup for us,” Taylor said. “He pulled us out away from the basket and he could get it to the basket and he’s quite a bit taller than some of the kids I had guarding them.”
Humboldt’s seven first-half threes helped to give them a one-point lead headed into halftime.
The three-point pool dried up in the second half though which led to Uniontown taking control of the game again. With the momentum in hand, the Eagles headed into the fourth quarter up 43-41.
Then a switch flipped.
What was a close game turned into an almost breeze as the Cubs scored 12 unanswered and never looked back. Uniontown got as close as six thanks in part to a poor 11-29 free throw shooting night for Cubs.
Along with Barker, junior Teryn Johnson and sophomore Conor Haviland scored in double-figures with 12 and 11 points each. This is the second-straight double-figures game for Haviland but the first of the season for Johnson and Barker. Taylor hopes to see more and more of his players step in larger scoring roles as the season progresses.
“We’re going to be a work in progress for a while,” Taylor said. “Since the season started I’ve been saying that no one kid is more important than the other. I don’t know who I’m going to play from night to night. And it’s not like drawing straws but whoever is doing what we need to do to be successful is going to play. And you hope if we have 8 or 9 guys who are doing things will continue to get better so they can beat the five guys that are against them.”
Humboldt plays Crest in night two of the tournament on Thursday. With 6’4” junior Hayden Hermreck, Taylor sees another potential match-up nightmare if his team doesn’t bring their maximum defensive and rebounding effort.
“If we don’t defend and rebound then we’re going to have our hands full,” Taylor said. “They always shoot well against us too.”
Tip-off is at 8:30 p.m.
PHOTO: Senior Jacob Barker sizes up a Uniontown defender in Humboldt’s 55-47 win over the Eagles on Tuesday. Barker scored 16 points in the win. REGISTER/TIMOTHY EVERSON
