Submitted photo – The Del Norte girls celebrate their tournament championship on Saturday.

The Del Norte Warriors have hit the ground running this season and look like they should be one of the teams to beat when league play opens in a few weeks time.

On Saturday, the Del Norte girls handed St. Bernard’s a first loss of the season in a championship showdown at the Mt. Shasta tournament, winning 50-46 and improving to 6-1.

First-year head coach Dylan Nelson has his team playing as a cohesive unit early in the season and it’s something they have been working on.

“The whole team is coming together and playing together,” he said after Saturday’s big win in their first game against an H-DNL team this season.

Anyessa Bettega led the way offensively and scored a team-high 13 points in the win, while Jacalyn Gorbet added 12 points.

Brooklyn Carter also had a good game and finished with nine points, while Khloe Smith had eight points.

The Warriors were able to find some success going against the Crusaders’ press.

“You know, we worked hard planning to go against that press and we had a little bit of trouble with it at the beginning,” the coach said. “But we kept getting better and better and we didn’t turn the ball over down the stretch.”

The team defense, which was led by Tsinte Steinruck, helped set the tone and grew in stature as the game wore on.

Steinruck was particularly effective on defense in all three tournament wins.

“Tsinte Steinruck had a very good week on defense,” Nelson said. “She guarded the best player on each team and really excelled.”

The Crusaders, meanwhile, were once again led by junior standout Laila Florvilus, who finished with a game-high 23 points and was named to the all-tournament team.

Madelyn Shanahan also impressed for St. Bernard’s and finished with 10 points, while Alyssa Boham added five points.

Head coach Matt Tomlin, whose team dropped to 5-1, believes the loss will benefit his players.

“We will learn a lot from this game that will make us a better team moving forward,” he said. “I am proud of the girls’ effort all weekend.”

Next up, the Crusaders will play a non-tournament game at McKinleyville on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m..

The Warriors will return to action at the Central Valley tournament, which gets under way on Thursday.