Wildcats defense hold Kingwood Park to four points in the third quarter and 21 points under its average
Humble – With under a minute left, the home crowd dressed in purple and white begin chanting Humble, Humble, Humble in reference to its early celebration.
In resounding fashion, the Humble Wildcats delivered a scratching performance to grab the top spot in District 18-5A with a 56-34 victory over rival Kingwood Park Tuesday night at Humble High School.
With the win, the Wildcats move to (22-5, 9-1) and also avenge a 38-34 loss to Kingwood Park in the first half of district play.
“When we went over to their place, take nothing away from them, they played their butts off. I felt like they came in and threw a knockout punch and we weren’t ready for it,” said Humble’s Coach David Martinez.
The Wildcats held Kingwood Park to four, third quarter points while turning a 7-point halftime lead into an 11 point deficit to end the quarter. Humble turned up the defensive pressure and dictated the tempo with a much slower half court offense.
“Huge win for us, we knew we had to come in and be ready,” said Coach Martinez. We knew it would be a fight, that’s exactly what it was. I went in at halftime and said it’s not over. We have another half to go and the kids did a great job battling tonight.”
A 7-0 run to start the game, put Humble in control early. Forward Adrian Motley opened the game with a trey from the left wing to give the Wildcats a spark that would carry throughout the evening. After a quick stop, Wildcats point guard Trayvond Collins who led Humble in scoring with 19, drove down the middle of the Panthers defense for a basket and center Kyndhal Hill grabbed a rebound and scored to give Humble a 7-0 –lead.
“They got off early and we struggled to score. They did a hell of a job defensively. We usually average 55 points per game but they held us to 34. They didn’t play a lot of people but they bottled up Chandler pretty good,” Kingwood Park’s coach Dominic Amorosa said.
Forward Justin Chandler created some space with a drop step move to put Park on the board, 7-2 with 4:13 to go in the first quarter.
Wildcats Kyndhal Hill and Adrian Motley also finished with double figures, 12 and 11 points respectfully.
After an exchange of scores, reserve guard Thomas Dallefeld drained a trey to increase Humble’s lead, 12-4. Soon after, Chandler and guard Cullen Craft combined for four points to trim the lead, 12-8. But the Wildcats wouldn’t let up as Collins nailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to help Humble close out the first quarter, leading 15-10.
Collins begin the second quarter, like the first, penetrating the middle for a finger roll. Up until this point both teams relied on its transition game with the Wildcats executing more frequently.
Down 22-12, the Panthers didn’t let the game get too far from its grasp. A trey from sophomore forward Nik Oakes got Kingwood Park back on track. Meanwhile, Humble was steady as Craft knock down two free throws to stay ahead of the Panther’s hot pursue.
Hunter Pounds spotted up from behind the arc to cut the deficit 24-18 with just under 2:00 minutes in the second quarter. Just when Craft hit one of two free throws to pull within five, 24-19, Collins split the middle on yet another finer roll to help Humble regain the momentum, as it led 26-19.
A four point third quarter and poor free throw shooting haunted the Panthers. Humble didn’t score much in the quarter but outscored Park 8-4 to hold 34-23 lead, heading into the fourth quarter.
“Our free throw shooting was not good tonight, but we try to prepare them in practice. You get in this environment and it’s an alkalis hill for us,” Coach Amorosa said.
Again, the Wildcats slowed the pace and went to a four corner spread as it worked the ball inside to Hill for a couple layups which proved costly for Kingwood Park.
“Once we got the foul situation in our favor we were going to be shooting free throws the rest of the way. I wanted us to work it around and get inside,” Coach Martinez said.
Within a two minute span, the Panther missed five free throws before the game got out of reach. This included four by Chandler. That eventually opened the flood gates for the winning Wildcats.
Justin Chandler paced the Panther with 12 points.