Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Olivia Millender in action for the Loggers at Arcata on Friday night.

By Ray Hamill — The Eureka Loggers moved one win clear at the top of the Big 5 standings with a 53-43 win in girls basketball at Arcata on Friday night.

Reigning conference MVP Kaitlin Giacone had a phenomenal night in the win in what was a high-intensity showdown between the two league frontrunners.

Giacone, who is enjoying another MVP caliber campaign, set the tone for her teammates at both ends of the court and finished with a game-high 19 points.

“KK did everything for us tonight,” Eureka head coach Cliff Napoleon said of the standout senior. “Offense, defense, she was everywhere.”

Arcata head coach Charlie Espinoza echoed the sentiment.

“Eureka came to play,” he said. “Hats off to Eureka and their girls, they wanted it. Kaitlin beat us tonight.”

To the Tigers credit, they battled the two-time defending league champs and gave them all they could handle for much of the night.

Eureka led by three after the opening quarter and stretched the advantage to eight (28-20) by halftime.

They came out of the interval with the same intensity and outscored the home team 13-6 in the third quarter to take control of the game, but the Tigers would continue to battle all the way to the final buzzer.

“We started off slow and got caught up with the speed at which we had to play the game,” Napoleon said. “But once we got out of first gear and into second, third and fourth gear we were good.

“It was nice because once we got into the higher gears we stayed there the entire night. There was no letdown with our intensity, which was one of my challenges to them.

“Proud of them for playing for each other.”

Samara Gaither also continued to impress for the Eureka girls and finished with 13 points, while freshman Tiara Maualuga added 11 points.

“It was high intensity the whole time,” Napoleon added. “Both teams just going at each other. Arcata was with us step for step.”

With the win, which was their third straight, the Loggers improved to 3-0 in the Big 5 and 15-3 overall.

Napoleon also praised the efforts of Espinoza, who has his players playing at a high level in his first year in charge of the team.

“Coach Espinoza is doing a great job,” he said. “We are gonna have another great battle when they come to our house on the 30th.”

The Tigers played well defensively and came away with 22 steals, but they were only able to score eight points off those takeaways.

“We were shying away from attacking the paint and couldn’t finish,” Espinoza said. “I was proud of our effort but our nerves got to us … we need to execute better.”

With the loss, the Tigers fell to 2-1 in the Big 5 and are now tied for second win the standings with McKinleyville.

The loss ended a four-game winning streak for the Tigers, who are now 12-4 overall.

Next up, on Wednesday, the Loggers will play at McKinleyville and the Tigers play at Del Norte.