File photo – Arcata’s Luke Lemke

The Eureka girls are piecing together a very impressive pre-league campaign.

On Friday night, the Loggers beat a good Analy team 57-25 at the Maria Carrillo tournament to go to 7-1 on the season.

The Eureka girls, who have won five straight games, will play for their second straight tournament championship early on Saturday afternoon.

Also in action late Friday night, the South Fork boys suffered their first loss of the season at the Redwood Empire Invitational Basketball Tournament in Healdsburg, falling 66-31 to San Domenico.

The McKinleyville boys also were in action at the 55th Annual Jerry Paul Arcata Invitational Basketball Tournament and bounced back from a disappointing loss to Enterprise on Thursday with a 67-51 win over Red Bluff.

The Arcata boys, meanwhile, will play Montgomery for the tournament championship at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday after winning for the second time in two days on Friday, beating Enterprise 55-45.

At Maria Carrillo, reigning Big 5 MVP Kaitlin Giacone led the Loggers offense with another big performance.

The senior standout scored a game-high 19 points against Analy, while fellow senior Isis Poteet added 10 points and freshman Tiara Maualuga had eight points as she continues to make an immediate impact at the varsity level.

It was the team defense, however, that really et the tone in the win.

“Another great defensive performance for the Lady Loggers,” head coach Cliff Napoleon said. “The communication that we are developing is phenomenal.

“We are talking and covering and talking and covering.”

The Loggers got off to a fast start and led 18-2 after the opening quarter, while holding Analy scoreless for the opening seven and a half minutes of the game.

They led 33-12 at halftime and were never really in danger of losing the game after that.

Most of Eureka’s wins have come against quality teams that are ranked above them in the North Coast Section, according top MaxPreps.

At Healdsburg, meanwhile, the South Fork boys will play for third place at the REIBT after falling to a quality San Domenico team.

“They were a super good team, really athletic and long, and it made it really difficult for us to be able to run any sort of cohesive offense,” South Fork head coach Taylor Morrow said. “We found moments for sure that we could capitalize on but they were few and far between.”

The loss drops the Cubs to 6-1 on the season, but Morrow believes that game will benefit his team moving forward.

“I’m actually very pleased playing a team of that caliber because we have learned a lot about ourselves and what we need to work on,” he said. 

Tommy Rotbergs led the Cubs offense with 10 points, while Shevy Bero-Vanmeter had eight points.

The South Fork boys will play Ukiah for third at 5 p.m. on Saturday.

The McKinleyville boys, meanwhile, improved to 6-3 with their bounce back win against Red Bluff.

“It was a very good team win tonight, as I felt we got strong minutes from reserves,” head coach Chris Davis said. 

In particular, JT Nicholls and Talen Townsend impressed off the bench.

“We still have a lot of work to do to put a full 32 minutes together, but this squad is improving day by day , game by game,” the coach added. “Defense has to be our staple and the intensity was there tonight.”

Senior guard Jordan Brown has been setting the tone for that defense and is a player “who works so hard on the defensive end,” according to his coach.

Bode Douglass scored a team-high 23 points in the win, while Flynn Creighton added 12 points and Cole Armstrong had 11 points.

The Tigers, meanwhile, overcame a fast start by Enterprise on their way to victory at their own tournament.

“Enterprise came out firing, but once we settled down we settled into the game,” head coach Kellen Maynard said. “In the second and third quarters our intensity and our defensive effort were better than they’ve been all season long.

“I thought we played with more urgency in the second and third quarters and that easily was where we won the game.”

The coach also praised his players’ maturity late in the game, which allowed them to hold on for the win as Enterprise tried to battle back.

Luke Moxon scored a team-high 18 points for Arcata, which improved to 4-2 on the season, while Dawson Vallerga added 12 points and Dayquan Dunn finished with seven points.