File photo – The South Fork boys beat Round Valley in their NCS playoff opener on Saturday night.

By Ray Hamill — Five H-DNL teams are moving on to the semifinals in the North Coast Section basketball playoffs after a busy weekend for the league’s teams.

On Saturday night, the Arcata Tigers hosted a Division-4 playoff doubleheader, with boys and girls games against McKinleyville.

The Arcata girls got the action started with a 47-39 win over the Panthers, before the boys teams took the floor and McKinleyville won a thrilling showdown played in a fantastic atmosphere by a score of 49-45.

Also in action on Saturday night, in Division 6, the South Fork boys won their quarterfinal against Round Valley in Miranda by a score of 75-41, while the South Fork girls traveled to play No. 1 seed San Francisco Waldorf and lost 67-12.

Rounding out a busy night for the H-DNL teams, the Del Norte girls lost their Division-4 quarterfinal at No. 2 seed University in San Francisco by a score of 54-33.

The losses for the Del Norte, South Fork, and McKinleyville girls end their seasons, as did the loss for the Arcata boys.

The Mack and South Fork boys and the Arcata girls all advance to next week’s semifinals, along with the Eureka and St. Bernard’s girls, who each won their quarterfinals on Friday night.

At Miranda, senior Tommy Rotbergs played like a player who doesn’t want his high school career to end just yet and scored a game-high 29 points for the Cubs, including four 3-pointers, while Shevy Bero-Van Meter added eight points, including a pair of 3s.

But it was the team defense that really stole the show.

“Defense was key tonight, and we did a great job rebounding, especially in the second half,” South Fork head coach Taylor Morrow said. 

It had been a week and a half since the Cubs last played, but they showed no ill-effects from the layoff.

“It was good to see that after a week off we haven’t slipped any and have improved with the extra practice,” Morrow added. “Fun team to coach tonight.”

The Cubs got contributions from several players, including Ruben Lopez, who finished with nine points.

“I loved Ruben Lopez’s energy,” the coach said. “He was flying around and playing his heart out.”

Several players also had an impact off the bench, including Justin Freitas and Broc Contreras, each of whom “had great energy,” according to the coach, while sophomore Shawn Schmidt added eight points and several rebounds.

“Shawn Schmidt showed real maturity,” Morrow said.