Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – McKinleyville’s Jordan Brown saw an outstanding high school career come to an end on Tuesday night.

By Ray Hamill — All in all, it wasn’t a bad first year for Chris Davis.

The McKinleyville boys basketball head coach led the Panthers to just their third-ever Big 5 championship after sharing the title with the Arcata Tigers and guided the team to a North Coast Section semifinal and a first-ever state playoff appearance.

And after their season ended in a 60-49 loss at Mt. Shasta in the opening round of the NorCal Division-5 tournament on Tuesday night, Davis paid tribute to his players for everything they achieved, and in particular a group of seniors who all played pivotal roles in the success.

“Our seniors have been amazing leaders for our team this year,” Davis said. “Each of these young men led by example and worked hard day in and day out.

“We’re so proud of this group and will remember this forever.”

The influential and history-making senior class included Jordan Brown, Flynn Creighton, Justin Wells, JT Nicholls, Carter Eichin, Talen Townsend and Lucien Ricker.

“It’s been an amazing season though and our coaching staff (including assistants Harlan Leroux and Noah Wheeler) has been very fortunate to get to have this group of young men for our first season at McKinleyville,” Davis added.

Creighton and Brown both had big games in the season finale, scoring 12 and 11 points, respectively, as did junior Nick Maher, who scored a team-high 15 points.

Sophomore Bode Douglass added seven points and looks set to play a key role with the team for the next two years.

Tuesday’s game was an always difficult to call 8 vs. 9 seed matchup, with the home team and higher seeds pulling out the victory.

“A lot of credit to Mt. Shasta tonight as they came out fired up and ready to get the 50/50 balls, extend possessions and made great extra passes for high percentage shots,” Davis said after the loss. “We just didn’t play Mack basketball tonight, missed some shots we typically finish, didn’t rotate defensively where we typically do and didn’t play with enough of a sense of urgency.”

Despite the disappointment of the season-ending loss, however, the Panthers enjoyed a memorable winter, including a thrilling 49-45 win over rival Arcata in the NCS quarterfinal.

That game was played in front of a packed house at Arcata High and the win avenged back-to-back blowout losses to the Tigers.

The league championships was also the first for the program since 2018 and the Panthers closed out with a record of 20-13.