Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSpoerts.com – Luke Lemke in action for the Arcata Tigers at McKinleyville on Monday night.

By Ray Hamill — The Arcata and McKinleyville boys may have been crowned co-champions of the Big 5 last week, but one of them emerged as a strong favorite for the Dick Niclai tournament with a statement win on Monday night.

Facing off in a playoff game to decide which school receives the top seed for this week’s Niclai tournament and the Big 5’s guaranteed North Coast Section playoff berth, it was the Tigers who dominated their closest rivals in all facets of the game on the way to a 65-37 win in front of a packed gym at McKinleyville.

Also in action on Monday night, the Hoopa Warriors won a tournament play-in game at Ferndale, beating the Wildcats 60-50.

The opening round of the Dick Niclai tournament will be played on Tuesday night, with Hoopa traveling to play South Fork in Miranda and McKinleyville hosting Fortuna.

Both games are set for 7 p.m.

Monday’s win sees Arcata get an opening-round bye and the Tigers will play the winner of the South Fork/Hoopa game in Thursday’s semifinal at College of the Redwoods at 6 p.m.

A determined Luke Lemke set the tone early in Monday’s win for the Tigers, who held the home team to just 12 first-half points and led by 21 at the break.

Much to the delight of the large group of traveling supporters, they would stretch the advantage to as many as 30 in the third quarter as the game got away from the Panthers.

“The guys rose to the occasion,” Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard said. “We knew it was going to be a battle, obviously, just because it was Mack, but I thought our guys rose to the occasion.”

Lemke played a pivotal tole in that, lifting his teammates with an outstanding performance that saw him score a game-high 20 points.

And he did so without seeing any action in the fourth quarter as Maynard went deep to his bench in the blowout victory.

“He’s got so much potential,” Maynard said of the multi-sport sophomore standout, who also was a conference MVP on the football field in the fall. “There’s so much more he can achieve. He’s just a sophomore. I thought he set the tone offensively for us tonight. Luke Lemke just took over the game and everybody fed off that.”

The sharpshooting Dawson Vallerga also was instrumental in the win and finished with 16 points, while Jack Luh added nine points and Dayquan Dunn had six points.

The Tigers continued to frustrate their opponents by rotating a lot of players in and out, a strategy that has been working very effectively for the team since they switched things up a couple of weeks ago.

“That’s just the style now,” Maynard said. “Two in and two out every couple of minutes and the guys are all bought in. Everybody’s’ bought in and it’s just been really fun to watch.”

Bode Douglass scored a team-high 11 points for McKinleyville, while teammate Flynn Creighton added six points.

Too many missed opportunities, however, cost the Panthers dearly and they never really settled into the game.

“They just missed too many easy shots,” Maynard said of the Panthers. “That was the difference. They missed some easy shots and we made some easy shots.”

With the win, the Tigers improved to 15-10, while the Tigers dropped to 17-10.

Down at Ferndale, meanwhile, the Hoopa Warriors secured the final tournament spot with their 10-point win over the Wildcats.

The home team enjoyed the better of the early exchanges and outscored the visitors in each of the first two quarters to lead by four at halftime.

However, the Warriors began to settle into the game and the two schools were tied at 35-35 going into the fourth quarter.

The final period belonged to the Warriors, who pulled away for the victory.

Neil Moon scored a team-high 18 points for the Warriors, who improved to 7-12 on the season, while teammate Malaki McCoy added 17 points.

Tristan Billings also had a good night offensively for Hoopa and added 10 points, while Brian Richards had six points, Lyle McKinnon had five and Brandon Romero chipped in four.

Ferndale was led by Thomas Fergison, who scored a team-high 16 points, while Trent Titus added nine points and Isaac Kasso chipped in eight points.

Defensively, Fergison, Titus and Braeden Rice all forced multiple turnovers with their pressure, while Kasso and Henry Westfall both had big nights rebounding.

Tanner Pidgeon and Parker Prior both also impressed with their hustle on both ends of the floor.

With the loss, Ferndale dropped to 5-12.