Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Wednesday night’s game at McKinleyville.

By Ray Hamill — The McKinleyville Panthers answered the call late in Wednesday night’s game against Fortuna to keep their championship hopes on track.

After dropping two of their three previous games, including a heartbreaking overtime loss to Del Norte, the Mack boys trailed doing into the final three minutes of Wednesday’s game and it appeared as if they were headed toward another defeat.

But with their backs to the wall and their championship hopes on the line, the Panthers battled through the adversity to pull out their most satisfying win of the season.

They would outscore the visiting Huskies 15-3 down the stretch to win 58-50.

“It was a big gritty performance by our team tonight and was probably my favorite win of the season,” McKinleyville head coach Chris Davis said. “This was our best game playing through adversity and the guys executed very well down the stretch.”

The Huskies led by seven going into the fourth quarter and continued to keep the home team at bay for the opening four minutes of the period.

But the Panthers would respond late with seniors Jordan Brown and Flynn Creighton and junior Cole Armstrong keying the late surge.

Brown, who was outstanding on defense once again, hit two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter, the second of which pulled the home team within one at the 2:40 mark.

Seconds later he stole possession and fed Creighton for the go-ahead basket, and with the momentum decisively shifting hands there was no way back for the Huskies after that.

Brown was hurt on the play but would return to the game just moments later.

Carter Eichin added another huge 3-pointer with just over two minutes remaining to stretch the advantage to four and Armstrong would add his third basket of the period just 30 seconds later to widen the gap further.

They would ice the win from the free throw line, including two successful attempts by Creighton in the final seconds.

The win lifts the Panthers to 5-1 in conference play (16-8 overall) and leaves them two wins up on Eureka and Arcata, who are both 3-2 and tied for second with a game in hand on the leaders.

A victory for the Panthers in either of their final two conference games — at Arcata on Friday and at home against Eureka on Feb. 2 — would secure at least a share of the Big 5 championship.

The Mack boys, however, have bigger goals in mind.

The program has won two Big 5 pennants but both were shared, and this year they want to leave no doubt and win it outright for the first time in team history.

Judging by Wednesday’s thrilling win, they will be hard to stop.

“It was great to see how our team responded to last Thursday’s loss,” Davis added. “Now we have to use this momentum to take on the road and come together in a huge rivalry game against Arcata.

“The question now for us is can we be consistent down the stretch.”

Creighton scored a team-high 17 points in Wednesday’s win, while Armstrong finished with 10 points, six blocks and six rebounds.

Brown added 12 points, including nine in the second half.

Russell Pascascio scored a game-high 20 points for the Huskies, who dropped to 2-4 in the Big 5 and 13-9 overall.

The Huskies remain in the chase for a Dick Niclai tournament berth.

Jake Houseworth scored 14 points for Fortuna, including a big 3-pointer right at the end of the first half to give his team a 28-25 advantage at the interval.

The Huskies would carry that momentum into the second half and outscored the home team 13-9 in the third quarter to stretch the advantage.

But the fourth quarter belonged to the Panthers.

With center Nick Maher in foul trouble for much of the night, McKinleyville’s JT Nicholls gave his team a lift off the bench.

According to Davis, Nicholls “gave us solid minutes, played gritty defense and was in the right spot at the right time.”