File photo – South Fork’s Trevor Hunt had one of his best games of the season on Friday night,

The race for the Dick Niclai tournament spots in Little 4 boys basketball looks set to go down to the wire with a three-way tie for second in the conference standings halfway through the conference schedule.

On Friday night, the South Fork Cubs beat Ferndale 69-56 in Miranda, while the St. Bernard’s boys moved two wins clear of the chasing pack at the top of the standings with a 54-47 win at Hoopa.

The Cubs played a rare home game and kept their Niclai hopes well on track with their first L4 win.

But it was close for much of the night, with just one point separating the two teams at halftime.

“It was really great to get a win at home in one of our very few (home) games,” South Fork head coach Taylor Morrow said. “I feel like we took a step mentally and have come together as a team and solved a few of our issues. Always feels good to get a win.”

The victory ended a four-game losing streak for the Cubs, who improved to 1-2 in conference and 10-8 overall.

And senior Trevor played a big role in achieving that, finishing with a team-high 17 points.

“Trevor Hunt, I think, had one of his best games of the season,” Morrow said of the senior standout, who scored 13 of his 17 points in the second half.

The Cubs broke open a tight game with a big third quarter, outscoring the visitors 19-9 for the period.

Wesley Way had a huge first half to keep the Cubs in contention and scored all of his 16 points for the game in the opening two quarters.

Zakunda Fansler also impressed from downtown and finished with five big 3-pointers.

The Cats, however, made the hosts battle all the way.

“Credit to Ferndale,” Morrow said. “They played so hard and made it really tough on us.”

Junior Prescott Langer stepped up for Ferndale and scored a game-high 20 points, while teammate Tanner Pidgeon led the way on the defense including taking a couple of big charges.

“We came out slow and didn’t take care of the ball,” Ferndale head coach Lane Stapp said. “We got within one at half, but couldn’t fully recover.”

With the loss, Ferndale dropped to 1-2 in conference and 5-11 overall.

At Hoopa, meanwhile, the Crusaders continued to roll and quickly bounced back from their non-conference loss at McKinleyville on Wednesday.

Ad they did it without leading scorer Liam Dyer, who missed the game.

With the win, the St. Bernard’s boys improved to 3-0 in conference and 15-4 on the season.

We’ll have more details on the Crusaders performance on Saturday.

Senior Brandon Romero and junior Malakai McCoy both played well for Hoopa.

Romero finished with 16 points and eight assists, while McCoy scored a team-high 24 points.

The Warriors struggled to find their feet in the opening half, but clawed their way back into the game with a big second half before ultimately falling just short.

“Was proud of our effort in the game, but obviously didn’t get the outcome we would have liked,” Hoopa head coach Roman Hutt said. “They’re a tough team, but we are looking forward to our next matchup with them.”

Hoopa is now 1-2 in conference and 12-7 on the season.