Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – McKinleyville’s Trinity Preston looks to set up a play during Tuesday night’s game.

By Ray Hamill — A competitive Big 5 is living up to the billing.

On Tuesday night, the Panthers won their second straight in league play, getting the better of Arcata at McKinleyville High School by a score 57-52 in an entertaining and hard-fought showdown between these two rivals.

The win was the third straight for the Panthers, who have responded well to a league-opening loss at Del Norte a week ago and are now 2-1 in the Big 5 and 13-4 overall.

And it was achieved with a strong team performance.

“It was a good team win, with emphasis on team,” McKinleyville head coach Jacob Cheek said. “The girls bought into the game plan and we executed fantastic.”

The Panthers came out of the gates the stronger of the two teams and opened up a quick six-point lead midway through the opening quarter.

But the visitors never allowed the game to get away from them and battled back to take the lead on a couple of occasions late in the second quarter.

The Panthers responded immediately each time and carried a slender 26-25 lead into halftime after a Tatum Fisher 3-pointer right before the break.

They would lead the remainder of the game, going on an 8-0 run to open the third quarter and stretching the advantage to 10 late in the period.

After that, they were able to keep their Northern Humboldt rivals at bay, making some key baskets every time the Tigers had any momentum.

And they did it with several different players contributing.

“We moved the ball really well and we executed really well,” Cheek said. “We went back to Panthers basketball.”

The loss was the fifth in six games since Christmas for the Tigers, who dropped to 1-1 in league and 9-7 overall.

The performance, however, was a big improvement from a Saturday loss to St. Bernard’s.

“We played hard, and we played much better than we did on Saturday,” head coach Doug Oliveira said. “You’ve got to hand it to McKinleyville, they made some shots when they needed to, and they’re physical.

“We didn’t rebound as well as we needed to, but overall I was pleased with how we competed. I felt everybody contributed.”

The Tigers also got big contributions from several different players, with the Panthers defense focusing on taking junior standout Nora Talty out of her game.

“McKinleyville did a really good job of keeping the ball out of Nora’s hands,” Oliveira said.

No final statistics were immediately available for either team.

Next up, the Tigers will try to bounce back when they play at Eureka on Thursday night, while the Panthers will try to keep their winning streak going when they host St. Bernard’s on Saturday.

Eureka 60, Fortuna 11

The Loggers got their league campaign off to an impressive start, with their defense holding the Huskies to just 11 points at Fortuna on Tuesday night.

The Eureka girls allowed just two points in the opening quarter and three more in the second and led comfortably 28-5 at halftime.

Claire Maples scored a game-high 17 points in the win, as the Eureka girls improved to 1-0 in the Big 5 and 13-4 overall.

Moriah Bowles also continued to impress and finished with 14 points, while Amaya Gee added eight points, Aniah Gaither seven and Kaitlin Giacone six.

With the loss, the Huskies dropped to 0-3 in league and 7-11 on the season.

Next up, the Loggers will host Arcata in another Big 5 game on Thursday night, while the Huskies travel to play Del Norte.