Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Arcata Tigers lost 48-41 to Montgomery in their own tournament final on Saturday.

Montgomery was crowned champions of the 55th Annual Jerry Paul Arcata Invitational Basketball Tournament after beating the host school in Saturday’s final.

The Vikings won the game 48-41 and improved to 7-1, while the Tigers closed out tournament play 2-1 and dropped to 4-3 on the season.

The Tigers came out the stronger of the two teams, opening up a 14-2 lead after the first quarter.

However, the visitors would settle into the game and took control after the interval.

“We played very well in they first half and in the second half the shots just didn’t fall,” Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard said. “And I don’t know if we ran out of gas a little bit.”

It was a good early-season test for the host school against a Division-2 opponent that comfortably took care of Piner in Friday’s tournament semifinal.

Luke Moxon scored a team-high 14 points for Arcata, while Dayquan Dunn scored nine points and Luke Lemke chipped in eight points.

Both Moxon and Lemke were named to the all-tournament team.

Lemke also did a good job defensively as he continues to evolve in just his sophomore season.

“Luke Lemke did a good job guarding Montgomery’s best player,” Maynard said. “Lemke made him work for every point.”

Lennon Geider also played well as he continues to improve and see more minutes off the bench.

“I was really proud today of Lennon,” the head coach said of the junior, who also played well in Friday’s semifinal win over Enterprise. “His growth from last weekend to this weekend (was impressive) and he gave us solid back-up minutes against a very good Montgomery team.”

Next up, the Tigers will travel for the Red Bluff tournament, opening against Rio Americano out of Sacramento on Thursday.

“That will be a very stiff test for us,” Maynard said of the Raiders, a Division-2 program that have most of their players back from a 27-6 team last winter. 

“I’m very excited to go there,” Maynard said of the Red Bluff tournament. “There’s going to be some very good teams there.”

The Tigers continue to build ahead of league play, which gets under way in the new year.

“We’re learning. We’re getting there,” the coach added. “Just the growth from last weekend to this weekend was leaps and bounds. I’m pretty happy with where we are right now.”