Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – McKinleyville’s Cody Whitmer reacts after making a shot during Wednesday night’s game.

By Ray Hamill — An injury-plagued McKinleyville Panthers team had to dig deep late in Wednesday’s Dick Niclai Tournament semifinal at College of the Redwoods, but was able to hold off the resilient South Fork Cubs to win 54-44.

The victory sets up a rematch of last year’s tournament championship against the Arcata Tigers, who comfortably got the better of St. Bernard’s 73-50 in Wednesday’s second semifinal.

Friday’s championship game will be played at Lumberjack Arena at 7:30 p.m.

The Panthers came storming out of the gate on Wednesday and led by 10 after the opening quarter.

But the Cubs gathered themselves and began to settle into the game, matching their Big 5 opponents the rest of the way and pulling to within six points in the fourth quarter to make a game of it.

Every time they seemed to make a run, however, the  Panthers had an answer, usually from Cody Whitmer, who had a big 3-pointer late in the game and was clutch at the free throw line in the dying minutes to help preserve the lead.

The senior sharpshooter is of one of several Mack players either playing hurt right now or out of the lineup through injury.

Jordan Brown, who just returned from injury on Monday, was sidelined again with a different injury, as was Cole Armstrong, while Justin Wells and Whitmer are not 100 percent right now.

“I’m just super proud of my team,” McKinleyville assistant coach Tyler Pelascini said. “We’re beat up and we’ve got guys playing in positions they haven’t been in, and they continue to play hard with intensity.”

Whitmer scored a team-high 15 points in the win, including three 3s, and was 4-for-4 at the line in the fourth quarter.

Jack Clancy added 14 points and helped get the party started with six of his tally coming in the first quarter.

Cameron Hooven added seven points and had two big-time 3s, while Justin Wells finished with six points and Bode Douglass and Flynn Creighton each chipped in five points.

“I thought Bode Douglass played a tremendous defensive game,” Pelascini said of the freshman guard who marked South Fork’s Tommy Rotbergs. “We put him on their toughest matchup and he was just great.

“And Cameron Hooven was clutch. He was able to come in and hit some big shots again.”

The ever-dangerous Rotbergs scored a game-high 16 points in the loss, including 10 points in the second half to help spark the rally.

John Harding was equally effective and enjoyed another strong all-around game, finishing with nine points, including six in the fourth quarter.

“I think we let the moment get to us a little bit,” South Fork head coach Taylor Morrow said of the slow start. “But in the second quarter we had a really good battle and we started playing loose in the second half.

“I really thought John Haring played amazing again, and Tommy again played really well. He was really, really aggressive going to the hoop.”

Ruben Lopez, Wesley Way and Shevy Bero-Vanmeter each chipped in five points.

“Kudos to McKinleyville, they played amazing and obviously they’re very well coached,” Morrow said. “And we’re grateful for that. Now we’re ready for the playoffs.”

With the win, McKinleyville improved to 21-6, while South Fork dropped to 17-5.