Humboldt loses 4th straight to ’Yotes
In the penultimate home game of the season, the Lumberjacks were on the fringes of the postseason but still had a slim chance at the final spot in the conference tournament. But after a 69-56 loss to Cal State San Bernardino, the final hope at the postseason dissipated.
The Cal Poly Humboldt women’s basketball team was officially eliminated with their fourth consecutive loss on Thursday. It marks the second consecutive season that the team has missed the conference tournament, although the ‘Jacks have already topped their win total from last season. At 9-14, Humboldt will try to play the role of spoiler in their final three games as they face three of the top five teams in the conference standings. They’ll start by trying to end the home schedule on a high note in their matchup with Cal Poly Pomona on Saturday.
Typically that last home game would be senior night, but Humboldt women has no seniors this season. That youth leaves room for optimism as the team has built on last season. But it has certainly been disappointing to see the team unravel in the past four games.
Head coach Michelle BentoJackson reflected on some of those issues after the San Bernardino game.
“It was still anybody’s ball game there in the third quarter,” said Bento-Jackson. “But in timeouts, when I’m the motivator and I’m the cheerleader and I’m trying to get them going. I mean, we need the players to do it within themselves and to just have that type of fire and that type of communication amongst each other on the floor.”
“We just don’t have that,” added Bento-Jackson. “To me, that’s glaring.”
That inability to respond when the chips are down was unfortunately apparent in the loss to the ‘Yotes. Humboldt came out strong in the first half, leading 18-15 after the first quarter in a backand-forth game. They continued to battle in the second quarter even as San Bernardino gained an
edge. But the Lumberjacks only trailed 33-32 heading into halftime.
In the second half, things just came apart. Madison Parry, who led the team with 17 points in the first half, could only manage 5 points in the final 20 minutes as she appeared to struggle a bit while playing through injury. There were simply far too many missed chances on open looks and defensive lapses for the Lumberjacks to come away with the win.
“I thought we did a lot of good things on the defensive end (in the first half). The not-so-good thing was we only had one person scoring,” said Bento-Jackson. “In the second half, just too many individuals not giving offensive production.”
Humboldt also performed poorly on the boards in the second half, finishing the game with a deficit of 39-30 in rebounding. Still, the two teams’ were mostly even in second-chance points. The teams were also even in the turnover battle, but the Coyotes capitalized with twice as many points off turnovers. And ultimately, that was the theme of the game: San Bernardino capitalized on their opportunities, Humboldt did not.
The ‘Jacks are sure to experiment with different lineups and approaches in these final three games as they aim to continue the build the program into next season.