Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Dayquan Dunn in action for Arcata on Tuesday night.

The Tigers kept their championship hopes alive with a comfortable 62-42 win over Del Norte in Big 5 boys basketball at Arcata High School on Tuesday night.

The Tigers started strong and opened up an 11-point advantage before the end of the first quarter, and with Luke Lemke and Dayquan Dunn leading the charge there was no way back for the visitors.

With the win, which was their third straight, the Arcata boys improved to 3-1 in the Big 5 and remain right on the heels of conference leaders McKinleyville at the halfway stage of conference play.

Elsewhere in the Big 5 one Tuesday night, the Panthers improved to 4-0 with a 49-41 win at Eureka.

Since losing to the Panthers a week ago, the Arcata boys have responded in emphatic fashion with conference wins over Eureka and Del Norte to get their title ambitions back on track.

And once again it was the team defense that paved the way to victory.

“We played really, really good defense tonight, and that’s been our staple so far,” Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard said. “And luckily tonight our defense was able to lead to some fast break opportunities for us.”

Dunn, who has lifted the level of his play over the last week, continued to shine at both ends of the court and helped set the early tone on Tuesday with another big game on the boards.

Lemke too has been playing at an MVP level for the Tigers and he finished with a game-high 21 points in the win.

“Luke did a great Job navigating the fast break, getting to the basket consistently,” Maynard said of the standout sophomore. “We did a good job hitting the boards. Dayquan had a great night rebounding and everybody really contributed in a positive way.”

Dunn finished with 15 points, while teammate Levi Sims also had a good night and added nine points .

“I thought Levi Sims did a really good job,” Maynard said of the junior. “He’s been playing better of late and tonight he was able to finally hit a couple of shots and make a few plays on offense … and then I thought defensively he did a really good job kind of helping control the permitter action of Del Norte and also grabbing some rebounds and getting out and helping lead the fast break.

“It was a good team win. Del Norte’s always tough, no matter what their record is.”

Lyon Rigden led the Warriors offensively with a team-high 12 points, while Aidan Rice added 10 points.

With the loss, the Warriors remain winless in the Big 5 at 0-4 and dropped to 7-12 on the season.

Next up, on Thursday, the Del Norte boys will try to get a first conference win when they travel to take on conference leaders McKinleyville, while the Tigers will look to keep rolling when they host Fortuna.

The Huskies had a bye in conference on Tuesday.