Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.,com – The Loggers celebrate their championship on Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — The Eureka Loggers were not going to be denied this time around.

Not on the biggest stage of all.

Not in front of a packed house and in the midst of a great atmosphere at Lumberjack Arena.

On Friday night, they won a third consecutive Dick Niclai Tournament championship for the first time in school history, pulling away from Del Norte with a big third quarter on the way to a 43-26 win.

The victory came against the only local team to have beaten them this year, and they close out the H-DN season with a record of 15-1 against league teams.

“All the way around I thought we did a great job,” head coach Cliff Napoleon said. “We rebounded hard, had few turnovers, and we shot the ball well.”

They also played some stellar defense, containing Del Norte’s MVP candidate Lili Nunez and holding her to just three points.

“It was great team defense,” the coach said. “It was everyone, offensively defensively, there’s not one person I can single out.”

This is an experienced Eureka team, one that featured five starting seniors, and it’s a program that has become accustomed to raising the Dick Niclai trophy in recent years, having now done so in 2020, 2022 and 2023.

They previously had won just one Niclai title in 25 years.

Their experience showed as the game wore on, and while the Warriors matched them stride for stride through the opening two quarters, they are unable to keep it up.

The game was tied at 16-16 late in the second quarter, before the Big 5 champions went on a 16-3 run to lead by 13 going into the fourth quarter.

After that, there was no way back for the Warriors, who were unable to find much rhythm offensively in the third.

Once again, Kaitlin Giacone gave the Eureka girls a huge boost off the bench when they needed it, while senior Mariah Napoleon set the tempo defensively.

“It’s a given, KK’s always going to show up, she’s always going to play hard and she’s always doing to do what Kaitlin does,” the coach said. “She does everything we ask of her.”

The win also secures a second straight Big 5 and Niclai championship double for a Loggers program that has been setting the standard here on the North Coast for the past two seasons.

The players’ years of experience playing together has paid big dividends this winter.

“Mike Harvey coached them along,” Cliff Napoleon said of his predecessor, who was in charge for the two of their three recent tournament championships. “I just kind of continued that on.”

Asked how much of a difference their experience made against a young Del Norte team that should continue to improve before peaking a year from now, the Eureka coach’s answer left no doubt.

“Huge,” he said. “Just huge.”

Giacone scored a co-team-high 10 points, including eight in the second half, as did Isis Poteet, who also continued to spark her team off the bench.

You know you’ve probably got the best team on the North Coast when you have the luxury of bringing Giacone and Poteet off the bench.

Aniah Gaither also was instrumental in the win and finished with eight points, while Mariah Napoleon scored seven points, all of them in the third quarter, including a big 3-pointer as the Loggers began to pull away.

“It gave them that extra boost,” Cliff Napoleon said of the 3-pointer.

But while the Eureka defense was able to contain Nunez’s offensive output, they could not say the same about sophomore sharpshooter Brooklyn Carter, who scored a game-high 15 points for Del Norte, all on 3-pointers.

Lauren Stutes, who continued to be a beast on the boards, added four points.

The Warriors, who were held to their lowest points total of the season, will now turn their attention to the North Coast Section playoffs, where they will be expected to make some noise in the Division-4 bracket and possibly qualify for the NorCal tournament.

The Loggers improved to 23-5, while the Warriors dropped to 19-7.