Submitted photo – The McKinleyville boys celebrate their tournament championship on Thursday.

An impressive early-season showing for the H-DNL continued this week, with the McKinleyville Panthers winning the Enterprise tournament.

Also in action this week, the Fortuna boys won their opening two games at the Dixon tournament and will play for a championship on Friday night, while the Arcata Tigers won one of three games at the Marin Catholic tournament.

Both St. Bernard’s and Ferndale won non-tournament games against Round Valley, while the Eureka Loggers lost to Cardinal Newman by a score of 61-35 at the Sonoma County Classic on Wednesday night.

The Panthers won their second tournament of the early season with three big wins, defeating Fall River (69-57), University Prep (47-45) and Enterprise (46-40).

Senior Jack Clancy was named tournament MVP after three impressive performances, while defensive standout Jordan Brown was named all-tournament along with sophomore teammate Cole Armstrong.

Cody Whitmer scored a team-high 21 points against Fall River on Tuesday, including four 3-pointers, while Justin Wells finished with nine points and Clancy, Cameron Hooven, Bode Douglass and Nick Maher each chipped in seven points.

Armstrong had a team-high 11 points against University Prep, while Clancy finished with 12 points and Whitmer had eight.

Brown and Maher each also added seven points.

In the championship showdown against the host school, Clancy capped three big days with a team-high 16 points, while Whitmer finished with 10 points, and Brown and Douglass each had nine points.

The win was the second for the Panthers over Enterprise this season, both coming by exactly six points.

With the win, McKinleyville improved to 13-3, while Enterprise dropped to 9-6.

File photo – Jack Clancy

File photo – Brando Bento-Jackson

Tigers go 1-2 at Marin Catholic tournament

After their scheduled opening game at the Marin Catholic tournament was canceled on Monday when a Washington team was unable to make the trip, the Arcata Tigers won one of three games in tournament play.

The Arcata boys, who are now 7-6 on the season, dropped back-to-back games to Marin Catholic (61-56) and Serra (64-51), before closing out with a victory over Miramonte (76-69).

“I think we got better each game,” Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard said. 

The Tigers, according to their coach, did not play particularly well in their opener, in a game they felt they should have won, but they responded well to push a good Serra team all the way with a much stronger performance on Wednesday.

Senior point guard Brandon Bento-Jackson was named to the all-tournament team for Arcata as he continues to lead the way on a young team.

The Tigers also received the prestigious team sportsmanship award at the tournament for the second time in three years.

Luke Moxon scored 19 points in the opener, while Kalani Butor finished with 17 points.

Dayquan Dunn, who had to sit out the first month of the season because of transfer protocols, also had an impact in his first game of the season and finished with 11 points.

Against Serra, Bento-Jackson, Moxon and Butor all led the team offensively with 12 points apiece.

Bento-Jackson continued to shine against Miramonte and finished with a team-high 18 points, while Butor added 17, Moxon 13 and Dunn 12.

Next up, the Tigers open league play at Fortuna on Wednesday night.

Ferndale 64, Round Valley 35

Kannon Christiansen scored a game-high 18 points as the Wildcats closed out their pre-league schedule with a comfortable win over the Mustangs on Wednesday.

“Not the prettiest of wins by any means, but we got the job done,” said head coach Tristan Waters, whose team improved to 9-4 on the season and 2-0 at home.

The Cats came out the stronger of the two teams and opened up a quick 21-3 lead, but they were unable to keep the momentum going and closed out the first half a little flat, according to the coach.

“Playing to the level of our competition is something we have been battling all year,” Waters said.

Christiansen continued to impress with another strong performance in the paint on both sides of the ball, while Isaac Kasso added 11 points off the bench and continues to play an ever-growing role on the team.

“He’s a great rebounder and puts himself in position to score off ball,” the head coach said of Kasso.

Jack Westfall also continued to impress and added 10 points while “doing great distributing the ball to his teammates,” according to Waters.

Next up, the Wildcats open league play at home to Hoopa next Friday night.

File photo – Aaiden Burris

St. Bernard’s 72, Round Valley 22

Aaiden Burris scored a game-high 26 points, including six 3-pointers, as the Crusaders cruised to a comfortable win in non-tournament action on Thursday.

Seth Dyer added 16 points in the win and Owen Shanahan had 11, while Wyatt Simoni chipped in eight points, Carl Nunes seven and Jack Stark six.

With the win, the Crusaders improved to 7-6.

Next up, they open league play against defending Little 4 champion South Fork next Friday night.