HUMBOLDT — The Lady Wildcats may have been knocked back on their heels in their first matchup against the Humboldt Cubs, but they sure didn’t make that same mistake twice.
Yates Center downed their host Humboldt 56-40 Tuesday night, in a 180-degree from the two teams’ to-the-finish nailbiter earlier in the season, which the Wildcats ultimately won.
“This game we kind of came in with a chip on our shoulder,” Yates Center head coach Chris Wells said.
It was fairly evident.
Mindi Holloway started inflicting the pain early, with a trey early on. The Wildcats jumped to a quick 18-9 lead over the home team, who were struggling to have any shot fall for them.
“The ladies couldn’t battle back from a slow start,” Humboldt coach Sherri Nelson said in an email.
Following a sharp opening quarter from the Wildcats, the game took a holding pattern for what seemed like the remainder of the game. The Wildcats’ stifling defense kept the Cubs at bay, no matter what sort of offensive plan they came up with. The Cubs showed some signs of life late in second, as junior Lakota Wilson began to make her offensive presence known — the halftime score was 29-18.
The second half was same-song-second-verse as Humboldt could not overcome the hole they had dug themselves in the first quarter.
Mindi Holloway led the Wildcats with 20 points, followed by Aubrey Smith with 15 and Shayna Karmann with eight.
Tilar Wells was the silver lining for the Cubs, however, as she showed off some prowess throughout the matchup. The freshman was hot from outside in the second half, with four three-pointers and a team-leading 16 points. Wilson came up with 10 in the contest followed by Kayle Riebel with four.
Wells said the Wildcats have been taking a different approach in their practices, altering their mindset since the season had begun. He said he is liking the results — aggressive play and more consistency on offense.
“I like this system a lot better,” he said. Either way, his team made a statement for the two teams’ second matchup of the season.
“We didn’t let it slide like we did last time,” he said.
Yates Center 18-11-11-16—56
Humboldt 9-9-8-14—40
Yates Center (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Wendland 1-0-5-2, Albert 0-0-5-0, Rossillon 2-1-3-5, Karmann 4-0-0-8, Holloway 4/2-6-3-20, McNett 0-0-1-0, Smith 6-3-2-15, Jones 3-0-2-6. TOTALS: 20/2-10-21-56.
Humboldt (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Kellar 1-0-1-2, Umholtz 1-0-3-2, Wells 1/4-2-3-16, McCall 0-2-1-2, Riebel 1-2-1-4, Hudlin 0-0-2-0, English 0-1-3-1, Wilson 2-6-1-10. TOTALS: 7/4-14-16-40.
YC girls roll past Humboldt
