Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — It was a difficult opening week for the Fortuna boys in Big 5 basketball, as they dropped their opening two conference games, both at home. 

On Tuesday, Fortuna fell 53-52 to Arcata when Tigers sophomore Luke Lemke hit a late game-winning 3-pointer to sneak the road win, and on Thursday they fell 53-47 to McKinleyville after a subpar night shooting the ball.

Fortuna came into league play with a realistic goal of winning the Big 5 title, but the Huskies now face an uphill battle in what is shaping up to be a very competitive conference.

“To open league play with two home games is great, but after dropping those two games we put ourselves in a pretty big hole,” head coach Norm Sotomayor said. 

“Tuesday night against Arcata, I thought we played okay. It wasn’t our greatest game but we played well enough to win.

“Thursday night was our worst shooting night of the season (32.7 percent from the floor). The ball’s gotta go in the basket to win the game.”

Sotomayor praised the play of Lemke, who is quickly establishing himself as one of the most exciting young athletes in the H-DNL.

“That was a really big shot in a big moment,” the Fortuna coach said. 

Lemke wasn’t the only opposing player to cause the Huskies problems this week.

In Thursday’s loss, it was the turn of McKinleyville junior center Nick Maher, who had a career night and finished with 27 points and 15 rebounds.

However, despite the early setback all is not lost for the Huskies, who welcomed back junior standout Jake Houseworth to practice this week after he missed the first half of the season through injury.

Houseworth, one of the top multi-sport athletes in the H-DNL, did some light work this week and is expected to see some court time in the team’s next game against Eureka on Tuesday.

And his return will give the Huskies a much-needed boost at an opportune time.

Jace Barsanti

“We’re going to slowly work him back in,” Sotomayor said of the 6-foot-3 center.

Unfortunately, however, just as the team welcomed back Houseworth, influential sophomore guard Kobe Spaulding, who was enjoying a breakout season at the varsity level, suffered an ankle injury and will miss some time.

Spaulding finished with 13 points in Thursday’s loss, while standout senior Alfonso Medina finished with just 14 points while being closely guarded by Mack defensive specialist Jordan Brown.

Medina also had seven rebounds and five assists, while Russell Pascascio added 11 points and nine boards and Kallen Barrote chipped in five points and seven rebounds.

The Fortuna players enjoyed a good practice eon Thursday, according to their coach, as they look to put a tough week behind them and keep their title ambitions on track.

“We watched some film and looked at what we did wrong and see what we can do better,” Sotomayor said.

“There’s a long way to go and anyone can beat anyone on any night.”

The reality is that in such a competitive field this year’s league champion will likely be a team with two losses, but the Huskies now have little or no room for error.

Next up, the Huskies will play a Eureka team they defeated 88-84 at the Arcata tournament in December.

The Loggers got their league campaign off to a winning start with a hard-fought 55-40 win at Del Norte on Thursday.