Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

The Fortuna Huskies rolled to their eighth straight win to start the season, topping Piner 74-62 to clinch the Arcata Boys Invitational Basketball Tournament on Saturday evening.

Drew Gillette led the way for the second straight night, finishing with a game-high 35 points, and earning tourney MVP honors in the process.

Gillette scored 81 points over the three games, on a Huskies team that has been red hot, scoring 71.4 points a game, and winning their eight games by an average margin of 21.5 points.

Bradley Willis and Donald Willis each finished with 17 points in the win, with each also earning all-tournament honors.

The Huskies opened up a 10-point lead in the opening quarter and stretched it to 20 by halftime, and never really appeared in danger of losing this one.

Hoopa Valley 91, Conerstone Christian 71

The Warriors turned in another high-scoring performance with a 20-point win in the championship game of the Gene Cotter Memorial Tournament at South Fork High.

With the win, Hoopa improves to 7-1 on the young season.

George Navarro led the way with 41 points and was named tournament MVP, while teammate Wade Nixon added 19 points and was named all-tournament.

“We’re just trying to focus on our defensive game, but we’ve got a lot of scorers too,” Hoopa head coach Joe Marshall said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that can attack.”

Shaun Navarro added 10 points in the win, as the high-scoring Warriors have now scored 90 or more points in three of their eight games.

“We’re playing Hoopa basketball,” Marshall said.

Cornerstone came into the game undefeated at 8-0.

The Warriors play at the Logger Classic next weekend.

Del Norte 54, St. Bernard’s 29

The Warriors defeated the Crusaders to win the Cloverdale Tournament on Saturday night, improving to 5-1 on the season.

The Crusaders were led by Lane Thrap, who scored 11 points, and Luke Fairfield, who finished with nine points.

“We just didn’t have the legs,” St. Bernard’s head coach Steve Thrap said. “And Del Norte played really well.”

It was the first loss on the year for the 2-1 Crusaders.

McKinleyville 82, Eureka 57

The Panthers won the seventh-place game at the Arcata tournament topping short-handed league rivals Eureka by 25 points.

The win ends a three-game losing skid for the Panthers, who improved to 3-4.

McKinleyville opened up a nine-point gap after the opening quarter and stretched the advantage to 17 by halftime, while never appearing in danger of losing this one.

The Loggers, who dropped to 0-6, were missing several players who had been playing football until Friday night, and who will rejoin the squad this coming week.

That gave several of the program’s younger players a chance to impress head coach Robbie Thompson and get some valuable varsity experience.

“We only had two players that even played varsity before,” the Eureka head coach said. “And it gave me a chance to see some guys I probably wouldn’t see. And they did some good things, and that will help them when they go back to the JVs.”

The returning Eureka players were in the stands for Saturday’s game. 

“The big picture I’m looking forward to our guys coming back in on Monday,” Thompson said.

The Eureka boys will host the Logger Classic next weekend, with Hoopa Valley, Fortuna and McKinleyville all scheduled to play.

Arcata 48, Antioch 62

A slow start cost the Tigers against Division-I Antioch at the Arcata tournament on Saturday, as they scored just six points in the opening quarter and were unable to catch the visitors after that.

Hunter Santsche scored 10 points to lead the Tigers, who dropped to 2-4.

Jacob Stoker added eight points, while Jack Taylor finished with six.