Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Isis Poteet in action for the Loggers on Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — The Eureka Loggers are headed back to the North Coast Section Division-3 semifinals for the first time in four years after a hard-fought 69-58 win over visiting St. Patrick-St. Vincent on Friday night.

If, as expected, this turns out to be the final high school game ever played at the iconic Jay Willard Gymnasium, it was a fitting farewell, with the Eureka girls finding a way to win a very entertaining game that was a back-and-forth affair.

The Loggers played with a playoff-worthy intensity early on and appeared to be in control after going on an 18-2 run to open up a 12-point early in the second quarter.

The visitors, however, responded immediately with an 18-3 run of their own, thanks in large part to the pinpoint accuracy of junior Marissa Elizalde, who nailed five 3-pointers in the second quarter alone to give her team a one-point halftime lead.

A plethora of first-half turnovers didn’t help matters for the Loggers, who had problems with the Bruins’ high-intensity press. 

The lead changed hands seven times in the opening four-and-a-half minutes of the third quarter, but the home team began to settle into the game and began to take care of the ball.

The Loggers pulled away late in the third quarter, going on an 11-0 run to open up a nine-point gap, with three different players accounting for four 3s in the period to help set the tone.

“What a game,” Eureka head coach Cliff Napoleon said. “It was a rollercoaster of a game. That first half we were a little jumbled. We were turning the ball over left and right. In the second half we calmed down.”

The St. Patrick-St. Vincent players were unable to maintain the early intensity of their relentless press and appeared to tire as the game wore on, as the Loggers’ depth once again began to pay dividends.

As they have for much of the season, juniors Isis Poteet and Kaitlin Giacone came off the bench to spark the home team.

Giacone scored a team-high 16 points, while Poteet had an outstanding all-around night, coming away with numerous rebounds and finishing with 15 points.

Ever-consistent point guard Amaya Gee also was influential and scored 15 points while distributing the ball with her trademark accuracy.

“Isis came off the bench and did a great job all the way around,” the head coach said. “It’s hard to game plan against us because you don’t know who’s going to have a good game, and when (Giacone) and Isis came in the tempo switched. It’s nice to have that luxury.

“And Amaya had a great game. The way she kept everybody in check and kept control of the ball and the tempo of the game. She did a good job of game management.”

Moriah Bowles also had an impact and chipped in 12 points.

Leading by seven points heading into the fourth, the Loggers grew stronger as the game wore on and went on an 11-4 run to open the period and stretch the advantage to 14 going into the final 1:45 of the game.

The visitors hit on a couple of late 3s to keep their slender hopes alive but some clutch free throws by the Eureka players down the stretch helped ice the win.

After missing too many free throws early on, the Loggers nailed 11 of 14 attempts in the final two minutes.

The win gets up a semifinal showdown on the road against the No. 1 seeded Marin Catholic on Tuesday night.

The Loggers need to win that game to qualify for the state playoffs.

Unlike Division 4, 5 and 6, which each have four state playoff qualifiers, in the Division-3 bracket only the top two teams advance past the section tournament.

With the win, the Loggers improved to 26-5.