EUREKA — The Humboldt Cubs returned home with a few wins after downing the Eureka Tornadoes on the road Tuesday night.
The Humboldt Middle School A-Team wrapped up the evening with a nailbiter after downing Eureka 40-38 off a jumper by Elijah Irby with 43 seconds left in regulation.
“This was the kind of game that makes us better basketball players. It was a battle,” Humboldt coach Jeremy Weilert said. “Eureka had leads of 5, 6 and 7 points. Each time we battled back to get within two and we took the lead once in the second quarter, but Eureka took the lead on their next possession.”
Although Irby had the game-winning shot, it was Tate Thomas who had a team-leading 18 points, as coach Curt Drake wondered afterward if Yates Center’s flurry “woke us up.”
“The boys did a good job of regrouping, and did a good job of controlling the game from that point on.”
A pair of key sequences late in the contest paved the way.
Lawson had been whistled for his third foul early in the third quarter.
Drake summoned a sub to get him off the floor, but couldn’t complete the move until the next stoppage of play.
And that didn’t happen for another two minutes of game time as the ball remained in play.
In that time of purgatory, Lawson was active as ever, grabbing a key steal as players tumbled to the floor and adding a field goal as MV stretched its lead to 30-22.
But Jones, who banked in a buzzer-beating shot at halftime for Yates Center, scored twice in short order, coupled with a 3-pointer from Jacob Smoot to knot the score at 30-30.
Campbell scored to open the fourth quarter for Marmaton Valley, and Lawson drained a pair of free throws to extend the lead to 36-30.
Gavin Busteed drove in for a bucket to pare the deficit to four, but Campbell responded for MV to push the lead to six.
Tyler Lord got loose for a bucket and suddenly Marmaton Valley’s lead stood at 42-34 with 2 minutes left. Lord then grabbed the offensive rebound on his own missed free throw, allowing Campbell to score again for a 10-point lead, eliminating any hopes for a dramatic YC rally.
After back-to-back wins over St. Paul and Oswego last week, where Yates Center was able to score often from inside, head coach Lane Huffman said his team could not find that magic against a taller Marmaton Valley squad.
“That probably had an effect on it,” Huffman said. “That was our bread and butter against St. Paul and Oswego. Evan (McVey) and Ben (Cook) did a good job of finding them. We just couldn’t get the ball to drop. I give credit to Marmaton Valley. They’re long and tall, and they rotated well on defense.”
