Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – McKinleyville’s Cameron Heenan in action on Thursday night.

By Ray Hamill — The Eureka Loggers kept the pressure on Fortuna in the race for the Big 5 championship with a hard-fought 61-56 win at home to McKinleyville in girls basketball on Thursday night.

In what was a back-and-forth game, the Loggers got the better of the early exchanges only for the Panthers to come storming back in the second quarter.

The Loggers again began to pull away in the third quarter, but the Panthers again reeled them back in and pulled within two points on four occasions down the stretch to make for an exciting finish.

Check out some of the highlights here, as the Eureka girls close out the first half of Big 5 action with a 3-1 record, while the Fortuna Huskies had a bye on Thursday and are 3-0 in conference play.