CUBA — Cuba High School’s boy’s basketball team played a pair of games on Dec. 8 and Dec. 11 against Licking and Herculaneum, respectively.

The Wildcats fell to Licking and defeated a tough Herculaneum team on the road to earn their first victory of the season. Cuba (1-6) then competed in the 64th Legends Bank Holiday Tournament in Linn as the No. 7 seed, beginning with a Dec. 15 matchup against No. 2 seeded Fatima. The rest of Cuba’s matchups and times in the tournament are TBD on the results of the game against Fatima. All of the tournament’s games will be detailed in next week’s edition.

Dec. 8 vs. Licking

Cuba played its first home game of the season against Licking and it was holiday-themed in multiple ways. The Wildcats hosted a toy drive which featured appearances from a local Santa, Grinch and Cindy Lou Who. It was also the Silent Night game, where the crowd didn’t cheer until the Wildcats scored 10 points. Wildcat fans made plenty of noise after the 10th point as Cuba found themselves in a hard-fought battle against Licking.

The first half of the game saw the score swaying back and forth with Licking headed into halftime up 31-25. Sophomore Caleb Brown scored 15 of his team-high 22 points in the first half to pace the Wildcats. The third quarter was an even matchup as Licking had just a one-point advantage in the frame and headed into the fourth quarter with a 43-36 lead over the Wildcats.

Licking appeared to be pulling away from the Wildcats in the fourth quarter and ballooned its lead to 12 points nearly halfway through the quarter. But Cuba continued to show that they don’t give up in the fourth quarter and staged a furious comeback. The Wildcats went on an 8-0 run on back-to-back three-pointers from Braden Gipson and AJ Flores and a Cameron Carnal dunk to make it a four-point game with four minutes left in the game.

But Cuba couldn’t get any closer as Licking received continuous clutch baskets and free throws from senior guard Karson Walker and defeated the Wildcats 58-50. Walker poured in a game-high 25 points in the winning effort.

Brown played his best game of the season, putting up season highs of 22 points, eight rebounds and a trio of shots from downtown. Cuba head coach DJ Dace credited Brown’s success to understanding his new expanded role on the team. 

“He’s (Brown) starting to get it and understand his role,” Dace said. “That’s a lot of it. Everyone’s in a new role this year.” 

  Gipson, Cuba’s only returning starter, knows his role as the lead guard and continued his strong season by scoring 16 points and dishing out a season-high eight assists. Flores scored six points on a pair of treys and had two assists. Carnal scored his only basket of the night on the dunk, but added two assists, a steal and a block to his statline. Felipe Valadez and Seth Adderly each scored a basket to finish with two points. Ethan Noltkamper was held scoreless, but handed out three assists and snagged two steals. 

Despite the 0-6 record to start the season, Dace is remaining optimistic about his team who has been competitive in every game excluding West Memphis.

“We’re getting there. We’re playing good, but not good enough to win,” Dace said. “With how inexperienced we are, it’s not a bad spot to be in. I obviously hate being 0-6, but how we’re playing is in a good spot. If we can clean up turnovers and not let teams get many second chance points, we’ll go on a run. It’s coming, just have to take it step by step.”

Dec. 11 vs. Herculaneum 

The Wildcats traveled to Herculaneum on Dec. 11 to take on the 3-2 Black Cats in hopes of ending their six game losing streak. Cuba did just that, playing its best game of the season to emerge with a 66-60 win. Cuba used a balanced attack and a dominant second quarter to propel them to victory. 

The Wildcats were down 21-15 after the first quarter, but had a fire lit under them from Dace in between periods that led to Cuba playing its best quarter of the young season. Cuba scored 22 points in the frame, the most they’ve scored in a quarter this season, and held the Black Cats to just seven points. The lopsided quarter turned their six point deficit into a nine point lead as the Wildcats headed into halftime up 37-28. Cuba maintained their nine point lead in the third quarter, and went into the fourth quarter up 52-43.

In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats were able to withstand a three-point barrage from Black Cat senior Tanner Duncan, who knocked down four shots from deep in the frame. Duncan came into the game 30 points away from 1,000 career high school points and did his best to break the record against Cuba. Duncan finished with 25, but it was not enough, as the Wildcats held on for the six-point victory. 

The Wildcats received double-digit scoring efforts from four players for the first time this season. Brown continued to emerge as a star in the making and scored a team-high 17 points, going a sterling nine-for-nine from the free throw line. Carnal did the majority of his damage in the game-changing second quarter, scoring 11 of his 15 points in the frame including a highlight-reel-type dunk. Gipson scored a steady 12 points on three shots from deep, a two-point basket and a free throw. AJ Flores dropped a season-high 12 points, scoring baskets in each quarter of the game. Ethan Noltkamper scored five of his eight points in the first quarter and Felipe Valadez scored a bucket to finish with two points. Dace spoke afterward about Flores and his team’s tenacious defense. 

“AJ (Flores) did a good job at slowing down and playing off both feet. It was a well fought game but our defense looked really good. They (Herculaneum) had a kid who could flat out shoot. All of his shots were contested so I was happy with our effort.”