File photo – Brandon Bento-Jackson

The Tigers geared up for league play with another strong tournament showing this week, going 3-1 at the Marin Catholic boys basketball tournament.

Arcata opened with a 52-48 win over Central Catholic on Monday, with Brandon Bento-Jackson scoring a team-high 22 points and teammate Kai Purcell adding 10 points.

They followed that on Tuesday with just their second loss of the season, falling to the host school 78-59.

Purcell and Bento-Jackson continued to lead the team offensively with 26 and 13 points respectively.

The consistent Purcell was named to the all-tourney team after a strong four days and Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard said that Bento-Jackson also continued to play well.

“Overall I thought we did a lot of good things,” Maynard said of the tournament showing. “There are a lot of good teams down here. Unfortunately we didn’t play our best game against Marin Catholic.”

The Tigers closed out the tournament with victories over University (74-67) on Wednesday and Napa (64-50) on Thursday.

Purcell scored 16 points against University, while Bento-Jackson added 15, Luke Moxon 13 and Izaiah Levy and Sam Trewartha nine apiece.

Purcell capped a big week with 22 points against Napa, while Bento-Jackson added 14 points and Trewartha 10.

Maynard said the Tigers committed a lot of turnovers over their final two games, something he feels they will have to clean up ahead of league play, which tips off next week.

“I don’t know if the guys were trying to play too fast or if they didn’t see what they’re supposed to see, but we’re going to have to do better when league starts,” he said.

Moxon, a freshman, was a bright spot this week, according to the coach, and had a good outing against University, while Cameron Klein had a good week on the defensive end.

“Every game it was a different guy making plays and stepping up,” Maynard said.

The Tigers are now 12-2 and will open the Big 5 at McKinleyville on Thursday, after hosting Ferndale on Tuesday.