Ray Hamill/.HumboldtSports.com – Action from Thursday’s game between Hoopa and Foothill.

A sluggish first half proved costly for the Hoopa girls in their Arcata tournament opener on Thursday, as they fell 58-28 to Foothill.

“I believe we played a little soft in the first half,” head coach Floyd “Cowboy” Billings said. “But I like the way we came back in the second half and started doing what we had to do.”

The Warriors will continue tournament play on Friday at 5:30 p.m.

In other games on Thursday, Eureka rolled over River Valley 73-19 at the Placer tournament, South Fork fell in overtime at Fort Bragg 43-34 in non-tournament action, and St. Bernard’s held off a late rally by McKinleyville to win 39-37 at the Arcata tournament.

The Arcata girls also defeated Gold Beach at their own tournament, winning 58-21, while the Fortuna girls defeated Mazama 38-35 in overtime, also at the Arcata tournament.

Submitted photo – Action from Thursday’s game between South Fork and Fort Bragg.

South Fork 34, Fort Bragg 42, OT

Strong defense kept the South Fork girls in their game at Fort Bragg on Thursday night, as the Cubs matched up well against a program that has dominated them in recent years.

South Fork freshman Shawnessy Conway-O’Neill scored a team-high 12 points as both teams were tied 32-32 at the end of four quarters.

Natalie Roberts added eight points in the loss, while Kaylee Cotter chipped in seven.

“I’m extremely happy with how we played,” new head coach Sheena Hawkins said. “Our defense was phenomenal. We just couldn’t get the defensive boards to go our way and they had a very tall team.”

Many of the Fort Bragg points came on put backs.

“I couldn’t be more proud of how we played against a D4 school,” Hawkins added.

The Cubs are now 1-1.

Arcata 58, Gold Beach 21

The Arcata Tigers turned in a strong team defensive performance on Thursday night, as they opened their own tournament with a big win over Gold Beach.

“I was really pleased,” Arcata head coach Doug Oliveira said. “We came out and we played really, really hard defensively and we took them out of their game. We just played really good team defense.”

Alia Prentiss scored a team-high 10 points in the win, while teammates Caroline Dieker and Melanie Luh each finished with eight.

Arcata will play Foothill in the tournament semifinal on Friday night at 8:30 p.m.

Fortuna 38, Mazama 35, OT

The Huskies pulled away from Mazama early in overtime to win an exciting game that saw little to separate the two teams over four quarters.

Teal Mostovoy scored 16 points to lead the Huskies, who improved to 2-1 on the season, while teammate Ronnee Norwood added 10 points and Isobel Crosswhite nine.

Just four points separated the two teams at halftime, but they were all square at 26-26 after three quarters ad still deadlocked at 32-32 after four.

The Huskies quickly took control of the overtime period, however, and were able to hold on for the win.

Next up, Fortuna plays St. Bernard’s in the tournament semifinal on Friday at 7 p.m.