File photo – St. Bernard’s senior Laila Florvilus

The St. Bernard’s girls continued their impressive run against H-DNL teams on Saturday afternoon.

The Crusaders hosted McKinleyville at College of the Redwoods in a non-conference showdown and won the game 51-42.

The victory was their 12th straight as they improved to 21-1 on the season.

They are also now a perfect 6-0 against H-DNL teams this winter, including 3-0 against Big 5 opponents.

The game, however, was close throughout and the SB girls led by the narrowest of margins at halftime (18-17), before stretching the advantage to six heading into the fourth.

Afterwards, St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin praised the performance of the Panthers and two influential seniors in particular.

“(McKinleyville) coach (Jacob) Cheek is a great coach and Tatum Fisher and Gabby Watson are two of the best players in the H-DNL,” Tomlin said. “We feel very fortunate to get a hard-fought victory over a good McKinleyville team.”

Senior Laila Florvilus scored a game-high 19 points in the win, while freshman teammate Carli Baum also continued to impress and added 14 points.

However, it took the Crusaders a while to settle into the game on offense, with their top two scorers this season — Florvilus and Samantha Sundberg — held to just four points between them over the first two quarters.

“We played great defense in the first half but had trouble getting our offense going,” said Tomlin, who added “Carli Baum kept us in the game with nine first-half points.

“We made some adjustments at halftime to get Florvilus and Sam Sundberg the ball in different locations in the second half and it paid off as they scored 25 combined points in the half.”

File photo – The McKinleyville Panthers

Sundberg finished with 10 points, while her older sister, senior Jocelyn Sundberg, also was hugely influential in the victory.

“I want to give a shout out to Jocelyn Sundberg, who played a tough and physical game inside for us with outstanding defense, rebounding and leadership,” Tomlin said.

Fisher scored a team-high 17 points for the Panthers, who dropped to 15-8 on the season, while teammate MaryAnn Som added nine points.

Both players had big second halves for their team and helped keep the Panthers in the game.

Som scored all of her points on second-half 3-pointers, while Fisher scored 12 of her points over the final two quarters.

Despite the loss, Cheek was happy with his team’s effort and performance against one of the top teams in the H-DNL and the defending Division-4 state champions.

“Even with the loss, I think as a team we are moving in the right direction as we get towards the playoffs,” the Mack coach said. “I thought we kept fighting even when things weren’t going our way.

“St. Bernard’s is a solid squad, especially with Laila leading them.”

Grace Pimentel added seven points for the Panthers.

Cheek also expressed his appreciation to CR.

“I’d also like to say thank you to (CR Athletics Director) Bob Brown and CR athletics for allowing us to use their gym for this game today,” he said. “I thought it was a great experience for our young athletes.”

Next up, both teams will return to conference action.

On Wednesday, McKinleyville host Del Norte in the Big 5 and on Friday the Crusaders will host Ferndale in the Little 4.

A win for St. Bernard’s against the Wildcats would clinch at least a share of the conference title.