GIRLS POWER RANKINGS — SB, Ferndale move up in state rankings

By barstoolfanatics on January 22, 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s Laila Florvilus

By Ray Hamill — For the second straight week, a pair of H-DNL girls basketball teams remain atop the rankings in their North Coast Section divisions, according to MaxPreps.

With a 10-game winning streak, the St. Bernard’s Crusaders are No. 1 in Division 5, while their Little 4 rival, the Ferndale Wildcats, remain atop the Division-6 rankings.

Both programs also move up one spot to No. 3 in the state rankings within their divisions.

The two programs are also among the seven H-DNL teams ranked in the top 43 overall out of 153 teams in the NCS.

Despite recent losses to St. Bernard’s and Arcata, the Eureka girls are the highest-ranked local team in the NCS and actually move up one spot to No. 6 this week, followed by No. 12 St. Bernard’s, No. 16 Arcata, No. 18 McKinleyville, No. 34 Del Norte, No. 40 Fortuna and No. 43 Ferndale.

Hoopa drops out of the top 50 and is No. 54.

Other local teams riding high within their NCS divisions include the Loggers, who remain No. 2 in Division 3 behind No. 1 Acalanes, with Arcata No. 5 in the same division and Del Norte No. 10.

In Division 4, McKinleyville drops one spot to No. 6, followed by Fortuna at No. 12, while Hoopa is No. 5 in Division 5, followed by South Fork at No. 17.

This week’s Humboldt Sports Power Rankings also feature some changes, including a new co-No. 1.

With their big come-from-behind victory at Eureka on Tuesday night, the Arcata girls leapfrog the Loggers and move up two spots to join St. Bernard’s atop the rankings.

The two frontrunners, who faced off in a classic NorCal championship game last season, are not scheduled to play in the regular season this year, but don’t be surprised to see them play each other in next month’s Dick Niclai tournament, perhaps even in the championship game if both teams can secure their conference’s top seed for the always highly-anticipated H-DNL postseason tournament.

Of course, the Eureka girls could have something to say about that and they remain well in the chase for this year’s Big 5 championship and a top seed for the Niclai tourney despite dropping one spot to No. 3 in this week’s Power Rankings.

Rounding out our rankings, McKinleyville remains steady at No. 4, as does Ferndale at No. 5.