File photo – The St. Bernard’s Crusaders

The St. Bernard’s boys opened the Fort Bragg tournament with back-to-back wins on Thursday and Friday.

The Crusaders opened with a 78-53 win over Clear Lake and followed that with a 63-20 victory over Mendocino.

After missing a couple of games through injury, Aaiden Burris returned to action and scored 27 points in the tournament opener, while teammate Liam Dyer added 22 points and seven rebounds.

“The ball movement was solid, we are looking for each other and making the extra pass,” said interim head coach Patrick Shanahan, who has taken over from Issac Gildea, who is taking some time away from the team for personal reasons. “Clear Lake is a well-coached team that knew their strengths. We did our best to slow them down but it was not easy.”

Seth Dyer added 15 points in that win, while Roman Cromwell finished with 11 rebounds in his first game with the team.

Wyatt Simoni also was influential in the win and finished with 10 rebounds, as was teammate Garrett Shanahan, who added eight boards.

On Friday, the Crusaders led 26-12 at halftime before pulling away after the interval.

“In the second half we played much better defense and our rebounding improved,” the coach said. “We continue to share the ball and celebrate each other’s success, which is fun basketball to be a part of.”

Seth Dyer had a double-double in the win, finishing with 17 points, 10 rebounds and four assists.

Cromwell also continued to impress and also had a double-double with 13 points and 13 boards, while Burris added 10 points.

Liam Dyer also impressed with 15 rebounds and nine points, while Simoni finished with eight boards and seven points.

The Crusaders are now 8-2.

McKinleyville

The McKinleyville Panthers opened the Enterprise tournament with a 65-62 loss to University Prep on Thursday.

Cole Armstrong scored a team-high 18 points in the loss, while Flynn Creighton added 17 points and Jordan Brown finished with nine points.

“Our boys played with a lot of grit tonight and put great pressure on the ball all over the court and caused a lot of good things to happen,” head coach Chris Davis said. “Unfortunately they jumped on us early and we had to claw back in.”

It was a close second half, but some late mental lapses by the Panthers led to some easy baskets for University Prep late in the game.

“We still need to put a full 32 minutes together, but a lot of positives still came from today,” Dabis said.

Brown almost sent the game to overtime with a late 3-point attempt that fell just short at the buzzer.

The Panthers are now 9-6.

File photo – The McKinleyville Panthers

Fortuna

The Huskies stretched their winning streak to five straight with a 73-31 win over Elliot Christian at the Windsor tournament on Thursday.

The Fortuna boys quickly took control of the contest and led their Division-6 opponents 28-2 after the opening quarter.

After carrying a 44-16 lead into half, the Fortuna coaches went deep to their bench in the second half and 12 of their 13 players scored in the win.

Mason Toroni, Kobe Spaulding, Bryson Gillam and Trent McGrath each had a team-high five boards as the Huskies won the rebound battle 42-27.

Toroni also scored a team-high 12 points, while Spaulding and Alfonso Medina both scored 11 points.

Medina also had five assists.

Eureka

The Loggers tipped off the Enterprise tournament with a comfortable 70-34 win over West Valley on Thursday, ending a two-game losing streak.

Will Mooney continued to impress in the win and finished with a team-high 13 points, as well as five assists and four steals.

Julian Goodman added 11 points, as the Eureka boys improved to 9-5, while Jahmil Rippy had nine points, Prince Latimer finished with eight and Michael Jewell seven.

The Loggers took control of the game in the first half and carried that dominance into the second half.

“It was a whole team effort,” assistant coach Andrew DeHart said. “We took an 11-point lead into half and came out focused in the second half.”

The Loggers enjoyed some big performances from their starters and bench players.

“Our first unit shared the ball well and our second unit extended the lead,” DeHart added.

Latimer, Jewell, Jerome Lyons, Makai Dennon and Trent Gerber all impressed off the bench.

The Eureka boys continue tournament play against Enterprise on Friday night.

Del Norte

The Warriors dropped back-to-back games at the very competitive Holiday Classic in San Diego on Wednesday and Thursday.

The Warriors opened with a 59-44 to San Luis Obispo and then fell 73-53 to Ayala.

The Del Norte boys, who are now 6-6, will continue tournament play against Liberty on Friday before closing out the four-day event against St. Joseph Academy on Saturday.

Arcata

The Tigers also were in action this week and posted a pair of victories to go to 7-5.

The Tigers, who have now won three straight games, beat Lincoln 93-81 in a high-scoring showdown on Wednesday and followed that with a 65-62 win over Marin Catholic on Thursday.