HUMBOLDT — If you’ve been around David Taylor long enough, you’ll inevitably hear one of his coaching mantras: How a basketball team handles the third quarter in a hard-fought contest often dictates if they’ll win.
Tuesday’s matchup between Taylor’s Humboldt High’s Cubs and Marmaton Valley proved his point to a T.
After reaching intermission with the undefeated Cubs on top, 31-24, Humboldt turned up its defensive pressure in the third quarter.
A 13-4 Humboldt run gave the Cubs a comfortable working margin from there in what became a 62-36 victory.
The win lifts Humboldt to 5-0 on the 2023-24 season. Marmaton Valley enters the Christmas break at 1-3.
“We tried pressuring them early with a full-court press, but give credit to Marmaton Valley’s kids,” Taylor said. “They did a good job of breaking it.”
It was when the Cubs switched up strategies in the third quarter, focusing on the half-court, man-to-man defense that Marmaton Valley’s offense went cold.
“I thought we played fairly well, considering the circumstances,” Wildcat head coach Cornell Walls said “Humboldt’s a great team. They’ve got some good athletes there, and they have a great coach. We were able to hang with them the first half. We battled, and that’s what I wanted to see.”
But Humboldt’s pressure, and an ankle injury to Marmaton Valley’s Brayden Lawson, proved too much to overcome.
The burly junior returned to the court after intermission, but was held to five points against Humboldt’s interior defenders Colden Cook and Sam Hull.
Walls was uncertain if the injury will hamper Lawson. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that Marmaton Valley doesn’t play again until Jan. 2 against Uniontown.
But even at full strength, Marmaton Valley would have had trouble against Humboldt’s withering defense in the second half.
“There was one stretch in the second half, where our defense was really effective,” Taylor said. “I turned to Coach (Jason) Weilert, and said, ‘That is the team we want to be.’
“Right now, we’re still looking for that identity,” he said.
Both coaches agreed the Wildcats ran out of gas down the stretch as well.
“It was a good experience for our guys,” Walls said. “It definitely showed us what we need to work on, and some things we did well. I told them that we went out and showed what we could do. We’re still figuring it out. We’ve got to get all the guys clicking at the same time.”
