File photo – The St. Bernard’s Crusaders

The first conference champions of the 2024/25 H-DNL basketball season have been crowned.

On Thursday night, the St. Bernard’s boys traveled to Ferndale and came away with a 62-45 win over the Wildcats to clinch at least a share of the Little 4.

The Crusaders, who are now 4-0 in conference, can claim the title outright with a win in either of their final two games against South Fork or Hoopa next week.

The South Fork Cubs are the only other team that can tie them for the title after winning their second straight L4 game on Thursday, defeating Hoopa 76-47 in Miranda and improving to 2-2 in conference.

The Cubs trailed by two at halftime (30-28) but rallied with a dominating second half, in which they outscored the visitors 48-17.

“At halftime, I just asked our team that they needed to make a choice on how they wanted to play,” South Fork head coach Taylor Morrow said. “And they did, they made a great choice.”

The second half was a very different story.

“They brought the energy, they brought the defense, they played at the level at which I believe they can always play at,” Morrow said.

The Cubs went on a 16-0 run to kickstart the second half and outscored the visitors 25-8 in the third quarter.

Trevor Hunt continued his recent good form and “played out of his mind,” according to his coach.

The senior standout finished with 20 points and had 15 rebound.

Fellow senior Wesley way also had a big night for the Cubs and finished with a game-high 29 points.

Both seniors played the entire game.

Zakunda Fansler and Travis Way each also were instrumental in the win.

“(They) added so many little things to our win tonight,” Morrow said of the industrious duo. “Great energy, rebounding and solid trustworthy defense. They really starred in their roles.”

The Cubs will close out conference play with games against St. Bernard’s on Tuesday and Ferndale on Thursday, and if they win the first of those two they will go into the final night with a shot at sharing this year’s conference championship.

“Big week next week and I feel like we’re ready for it,” Morrow said.

No stats were immediately available for Hoopa.

At Ferndale, meanwhile, the Crusaders outscored the Wildcats in all four quarters and led 32-20 at halftime, on their way to their seventh win in eight games.

St. Bernard’s welcomed back leading scorer Liam Dyer after he missed the team’s win at Hoopa last week, and he had an immediate impact, finishing with 30 points and nine rebounds.

However, it was a tough matchup for the Crusaders.

“It was a physical game and both teams came ready to compete,” St. Bernard’s assistant coach Pat Shanahan said. “Ferndale is an athletic, strong and fast team.

“We focused on rebounding the ball and limiting their attempts, and the guys did really well with that. It was good to be able to get another win on the road.”

Dyer helped set the physical tone on his return.

“Liam played his most physical game yet,” Shanahan said. “He was patient and made plays inside and out.”

Prince Latimer also impressed for the Crusaders and finished with 14 points, while Garrett Shanahan had another good all-around game and added eight points, nine rebounds and four blocks

Tyler Hinrichs also had 11 rebounds for the St. Bernard’s boys, who took advantage of their free-throw opportunities.

The free throws “helped us find our rhythm,” Pat Shanahan said.

No final scoring stats were immediately available for the Ferndale boys.

Prescott Langer led the Cats on offense, while Parker Prior and Tanner Pidgeon each “played really tough defense,” according to Ferndale head coach Lane Stapp.

“Overall we played well,” Stapp added. “We just didn’t have enough shots go down tonight, even when we had good looks.”