Humboldt High’s girls didn’t let the hangover of a disappointing loss four nights earlier stay for long Tuesday.
The Lady Cubs jumped out early against St. Paul and never looked back in a 46-21 romp.
The win, in the opening round of the War on 54 midseason tournament, sets up a semifinal match Thursday against host Iola High School. Tipoff is at about 6:30 p.m. in the IHS gymnasium.
Humboldt was “a little more focused” against St. Paul than in the Lady Cubs’ loss on Friday at Cherryvale, head coach Aubrey Jones said. “If we can keep building on it, game by game, we’ll definitely be better.”
Perhaps most pleasing, Jones said, was the contributions Humboldt received up and down the roster.
Shelby Shaughnessy controlled the interior, scoring 11, while Kenisyn Hottenstein and Ricklyn Hillmon converted several second chance buckets to wind up nine and seven, respectively.
Humboldt led 13-6 after one quarter and 27-13 at the break.
The focus, Jones said, was to find Shaughnessy down low.
“On nights when we don’t use Shelby, we’re not going to be successful,” she said. “She’s too big of a threat for us not to use her.”
Reserves such as Chanlynn Wrestler and Jo Ellison also had key buckets before the game was out of reach.
“Everybody had their moments,” Jones said. “With Shelby, we always expect big things. Kenisyn (Hottenstein) did a good job of pushing the action. Chanlynn hit a couple of big 3s. The girls are starting to hit their stride.”
Megan Doherty and Jorja Harris scored nine and eight, respectively, for St. Paul, which takes on Crest at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in the Iola Elementary School gymnasium on the consolation side of the bracket.
St. Paul (6-7-6-2—21)
FG/3pt FT F TP
Dent 1 0 1 2
