Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Dayquan Dunn in action for the Tigers last week.

By Ray Hamill — Four local teams will head to Arcata High this week for the 55th annual Jerry Paul Arcata Invitational Basketball Tournament, which tips off on Thursday.

The three-day boys tournament will feature eight teams and four games each day.

Big 5 rivals McKinleyville, Fortuna and Eureka will all join the host school in what could be the first real league preview of the season.

The action gets under way at 4:30 p.m. with Fortuna facing Montgomery, followed by Eureka and Piner at 6, Arcata and Red Bluff at 7:30 and McKinleyville and Enterprise at 9.

And the quality of basketball should be pretty good with five of the eight teams carrying winning records into the tournament and the other three all at .500.

The winners of Thursday’s games will play in Friday’s semifinals, which could see Eureka play Fortuna and a rematch of last weekend’s thrilling showdown between McKinleyville and Arcata, if all four H-DNL schools win their openers on Thursday.

The Panthers got the better of the Tigers at last weekend’s Mack tournament 56-54 thanks to a late Bode Douglas 3-pointer.

And if the two rivals should meet again on Friday, that’s a matchup local fans won’t want to miss with the two schools rarely disappointing when they play each other.

The Panthers have been one of the most impressive Big 5 schools early in the season and carry a 5-2 record into tournament play, while the Tigers are 2-2 after dropping two straight games to close out the Mack tournament.

The Loggers also have impressed early in the season and will be looking to score a second straight tournament championship after winning both of their games at last weekend’s Mount Diablo tournament.

Arcata’s Dawson Vallerga

It might be still early in the season, but the Eureka boys appear well capable of challenging for this year’s Big 5 championship and are off to a 4-1 start, which is the best start of any of the conference schools.

Fortuna also has impressed early and is 2-2 after going 2-1 at the Harlan Carter Tournament in Redding last week.

Piner, Montgomery and Enterprise all are 4-1, while Red Bluff is 2-2.

The tournament continues on Friday with games at 3:30 p.m., 5, 6:30 and 8.

The tournament is sponsored by the Sunrise Rotary Club of Arcata.