Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Arcata bench reacts during Wednesday night’s game.

By Ray Hamill — For the third straight week, there’s a new favorite to win the Big 5.

Just five days after rolling over Fortuna in dominating fashion, the McKinleyville Panthers lost a lopsided showdown at Arcata on Wednesday night by a score of 63-41, lifting the Tigers to 2-0 in league play and into sole possession of top spot in the standings.

Always one of the best rivalry games of the year in the H-DNL, Wednesday’s showdown was played in front of a packed and loud gym, with the sort of atmosphere we always see when these two Northern Humboldt neighbors face off.

Unfortunately the game itself didn’t match that excitement, with the home team taking control in the second quarter and never really allowing the visitors back into it after that.

“It was one of our more complete games of the season,” said Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard, whose team had lost to McKinleyville by one point on a buzzer beater in tournament play on Dec. 10.

The Panthers had the early edge and took a two-point lead into the second quarter, but they were outscored 19-7 for the period and trailed by 10 at halftime.

The Arcata defense held the visitors to single digits in scoring in two of the four quarters, with senior standout Josiah Gomez anchoring the unit in his first game back since suffering an injury in the last game against Mack.

“I thought our attention to the defensive game plan was good,” Maynard said. “Having Josiah back was huge for us.

“He’s one of the leaders and he’s always in guys’ faces. It was good to have him back, good to have his defensive presence.”

Fellow senior Brandon Bento-Jackson also had a good game for the Tigers, distributing the ball to his teammates despite being shadowed to great effect by McKinleyville defensive standout Jordan Brown.

When these two players go at it, it’s fun to watch.

“Brandon did a good job handling the ball,” Maynard said. “Brown is such a good defensive player. But at the end of the day, our guys just made plays.”

And plenty of them too.

Luke Moxon scored a game-high 22 points, while Bento-Jackson finished with 12 points and the ever-improving Kalani Butor had eight.

Luke Lemke also had an impact and finished with six points, while Dayquan Dunn had four points, Gomez, Dawson Vallerga and Jared Pereira each chipped in three and Jack Biondo two.

For McKinleyville, Cody Whitmer and Jack Clancy each scored a team-high 13 points, while Brown finished with six, Cameron Hooven five and Payton Harbin and Justin Wells two each.

“Defensively, they were just in our faces,” McKinleyville assistant coach Tyler Pelascini said of the Tigers. “And I thought Josiah did a great job.

“I thought (the Tigers) were a little bit tougher than we were.”

The loss ended a six-game winning streak for the Panthers, who dropped to 1-1 in the Big 5 and 15-4 overall.

They won’t play again until next Wednesday after a scheduled Saturday game against Ferndale was called.

“We’re going to be refocusing and getting back to the simple things,” Pelascini said. “And also getting a lot tougher.

“We’re going to move forward.”

The Tigers, who have now won four straight to go to 9-6 overall, will try to keep rolling when they host Eureka on Friday night.

The Panthers won the JV matchup.

Fortuna 64, Eureka 52

The Huskies broke open a tight game with a big third quarter on the way to snapping a three-game losing skid at Eureka High on Wednesday night.

The win was the first in league play for the Huskies, who improved to 1-2 in the Big 5 and 11-7 overall, and it keeps their championship hopes alive.

Russell Pascascio and Alfonso Medina each scored a team-high 14 points in the win, as the Huskies stretched a three-point halftime lead to 14 by the end of the third after outscoring the home team 20-9 for the period.

Donald Bickle also had a good game for Fortuna and finished with 10 points, while Dylan O’Loughlin had eight points, Jake Houseworth seven and Cody Collins four.

The Loggers, who dropped to 0-2 in the Big 5 and 6-9 overall, were led by Hans Chalmers, who scored a game-high 18 points.

The Eureka boys got the better of the early exchanges and led by three after the opening quarter, but the Huskies began to settle into the game in the second quarter.

Jordan Urban finished with nine points for Eureka, while Kaleb Green added six points and Evan Hodges, Kaiyani Dixon and Donovan Millender had five apiece.

Next up, on Friday, the Huskies host Del Norte and Eureka travels to Arcata.