Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Luke Moxon in action for the Arcata Tigers on Thursday.

If Eureka senior Will Mooney continues to play like this, he’ll be handful for anybody in the H-DNL this winter.

The Eureka standout made a seamless transition from the soccer field to the basketball court and scored 23 points, including seven 3-pointers, to lead the Loggers to a tournament-opening win over Red Bluff at Yreka on Thursday.

The Loggers won 62-60.

In other games on Thursday, the Del Norte Warriors also won at the Yreka tournament defeating Klamath Union 62-54 to go to to 3-0 on the season.

At the McKinleyville tournament, the Arcata Tigers also improved to 3-0 on the season with a 70-55 win over San Lorenzo.

The Hoopa boys also were in action on Thursday and fell 55-43 to Durham.

In their first official game of the new season, the Loggers had some ups and downs.

Mooney, however, was definitely a bright spot.

“It was a big night for Will Mooney,” assistant coach Andrew DeHart said. “He did a lot of the offensive carrying for us.”

The Loggers allowed their opponents back into contention on a couple of occasions late, seeing a 10-point and a seven-point lead disappear.

“It was probably closer than it should have been,” DeHart said. “It was our first real game and we made a lot of mistakes down the stretch that cost us some leads.”

Ryder Mitchell, Trenton Gerber and Elijah Estrada each chipped in eight points in the win.

The Loggers will continue tournament play when they face Orland at 3 p.m. on Friday.

Arcata 70, San Lorenzo 55

A poor second quarter didn’t slow the Tigers that much as they won their opening game at the McKinleyville tournament.

Luke Moxon continued to lead the way and finished with a team-high 24 points in the win, while Lucian Rodriguez added 12 points and also continues to play a big role for the team early in the season.

“I liked our energy in the first quarter, but for some reason in the the second quarter we didn’t show up on the floor,” said head coach Kellen Maynard, whose team improved to 3-0 despite missing some players who are still playing football, including reigning Big 5 MVP Luke Lemke. “I’m not sure what happened.”

The Tigers still led by six at halftime, thanks to a Dawson Vallerga buzzer-beating 3 at the end of the second quarter.

Check out Vallerga’s 3-pointer above …

“It’s kind of hard to be upset with that,” Maynard added. “We just have to play a whole game.

“But it’s still early, we’re missing some players and we’re still learning. But they played hard. They played hard in the second half.”

Vallerga and Eric Jackson each finished with 10 points.

The Tigers will continue tournament play against West Valley on Friday night at 8:30.

Del Norte 62, Klamath Union 54

After a slow start to the season for both players, seniors Aidan Rice and Lyon Rigden stepped up to lead the Warriors to a tournament-opening win over Klamath Union at the Yreka tournament.

Rice scored a team-high 18 points as the Del Norte boys improved to 3-0 on the season, while Rigden finished with 16 points.

Danner Dowd also impressed in the win, but the Warriors struggled at times.

“We got in some foul trouble and had some turnovers,” Del Norte head coach Cris Rice said. “It definitely wasn’t the cleanest game.”

It’s also early in the season and many of the players have only been practicing together for a short time after the school’s playoff run in football.

“It’s early and we’re learning things,” the head coach added. “I’m proud of the kids, they played hard.”

The Warriors did what they needed to late in the game to keep their unbeaten start to the new season going.

“We persevered through some adversity in the third quarter and gritted it out in the fourth quarter,” Cris Rice said.

The win sets up a semifinal against Yreka on Friday night at 6:30 p.m.

With the Loggers also winning on Thursday, the two Big 5 rivals could face off in Saturday’s tournament final.

Durham 55, Hoopa 43

The Warriors were held to single digits in scoring in each of the first two quarters, but they picked up their game after the break and outscored the Trojans in the second half.

However, it wasn’t enough as Hoopa dropped to 1-2 on the young season.

Senior Brandon Romero, who is coming off a big season in football, scored a team-high 15 points for Hoopa, while junior Brian Richards added  10 points.

Joshua Moon and Lyle McKinnon each chipped in five points.

McKinnon and Richards each led the team with six rebounds, while Romero pulled down five rebounds and capped a big all-around game with three assists and three steals.