Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Panthers defeated the Tigers on Thursday night.

There were a couple of surprising results around the H-DNL on Thursday night, most notably at Hoopa, where the Warriors tipped off  the Little 4 with a big victory over a shorthanded St. Bernard’s team.

The Hoopa boys won 59-52. No stats were immediately available.

Also on Thursday night, the Panthers defeated Arcata 67-58 at Mack High, improving to 2-0 in the Big 5 and handing a shorthanded Tigers team just its third loss of the season.

The Eureka Loggers also won, defeating the Huskies 54-40 at Fortuna and improving to 1-1 in the Big 5 and 6-9 overall.

Both teams also were shorthanded due to injuries and COVID protocols.

Hans Chalmers had a huge night in the win, finishing with a game-high 26 points, while teammates Evan Hodges, Jordan Urban and Jamin Guilbert each scored six points.

The Loggers began to take control of the game in the second quarter when their pressure defense began to create some turnovers and they led by 20 at the interval.

The Huskies cut the deficit to 10 in the second half but were unable to get any closer than that.

“Our bigs made some plays and we were able to get some extra chances on the boards,” Eureka assistant coach Andrew DeHart said.

In addition to some strong play by Chalmers and Urban, Makai Bolts also had a good night rebounding the ball, while freshman center Dayquan Dunn gave a Loggers team that was missing seven players some big minutes in his varsity debut.

Fortuna dropped to 0-2 in the Big 5 and 7-10 overall.