What a year for the Cubs.
After breaking a 27-year drought from making it to state in volleyball just a few months ago, the Cubs are at it again.
On Saturday, they clinched a spot in the girls 3A State Basketball Tournament in Hutchinson and now they have learned that their opponent will be fifth-seeded Nemaha Central, a consolidated school district in Seneca.
“It means a lot because it is mostly the same girls and we all worked so hard to accomplish this and we finally did it in my senior year,” Humboldt guard Tilar Wells said.
It is the first time in school history that the Thunder will be sending a girls basketball team to the state tournament. The school was formed in 2014 when the Baileyville and Nemaha Valley High Schools merged.
The Cubs will be ready for the Thunder when the two teams take the floor on Wednesday at 4:45 p.m., as for the first time in what seems like all season, they will have their full complement of players.
Junior point guard Rylan Wilhite is now healthy after struggling with both a stress fracture in her right foot and a sprained left ankle all season.
“It was really hard to go through the season and not being able to play with my teammates, but it is a great feeling being able to get back on the court with them,” Wilhite said. “I feel good. Nothing hurts.”
Humboldt coach Aubrey Jones says Wilhite is 100 percent ready to go.
“She is good, she played as much as we needed her to play the other day and she has been ready to do that,” Jones said. “We just didn’t want to risk using her until we knew we needed her.”
With Wilhite out, the Cubs have been forced to expand their bench and give bigger roles to sophomores Aricah McCall and Maggie Johnson while Morgan Mauk and Kaylie Johnson have become a part of the rotation in Wilhite’s absence.
This added depth will only help the Cubs against a much bigger Nemaha Central group.
The Thunder’s leading scorer is 6-foot Laura Macke at 15 points per game and she also grabs 6.8 rebounds per contest.
Other starters for the Thunder include 5-10 Ashley Larkin — 5.7 points and 7 rebounds per game — 5-10 Kaley Dalinghaus — 9.6 points and 5.7 rpg — and 5-9 Jacy Dalinghaus — 6.3 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists and 3.1 steals per game.
The primary post player for Humboldt is senior Annalise Whitcomb, who calls herself “5-10 on a good day,” but Whitcomb says this isn’t anything the Cubs haven’t seen before.
“We’ve been undersized all year so we are ready to rise up to the challenge,” Whitcomb said. “Makaylah (McCall, the team’s other post) and I will handle what we have to do down low.”
Jones is confident that her hard-nosed group will be able to handle their opponents size.
