File photo – Del Norte’s Lyon Rigden

The Warriors faced some top notch competition ahead of league play in boys basketball and head coach Cris Rice believes that will benefit his players when they tip off the Big 5.

The Del Norte boys traveled to San Diego to play in last week’s Holiday Classic tournament and dropped all four of their games, including three matchups against Division-1 and Division-2 schools.

The tournament, however, should benefit the Warriors in a couple of ways.

In addition to being a good team bonding trip, they also played against some quality opponents at the competitive tournament.

And, according to Rice, those games “toughened us up” as they get set to tip off conference play this week.

Most notably, the Warriors played against Division-3 St. Joseph’s in their tournament finale, a team that includes Angel Ochoa, the second leading scorer in the nation.

The junior guard is averaging 36.8 points a game.

The Warriors lost the game 65-59, with Ochoa scoring 37 points.

Del Norte also fell to Division-1 Liberty (82-45) and Division-2 schools Ayala (73-53) and San Luis Obispo (59-44).

Michael Webster enjoyed a big tournament for Del Norte and scored 58 points over the four games, while teammate Lyon Rigden continued to impress and had multiple double-digit scoring games, according to Rice.

“The talent in SoCal is impressive,” said Rice, who added. “We feel like this got us well prepared for league by competing against the top-tier talent we faced.”

Ryan O’Laughlin also had a big game against St. Joseph’s.

The Del Norte boys open league play against McKinleyville on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m.

They also host Eureka on Thursday.

The Warriors are now 6-8.