Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — One year after winning a first-ever state championship in basketball, the St. Bernard’s girls will be hoping to add a first-ever Dick Niclai championship to their resume.

On Friday night, the Crusaders secured at least a share of another Little 4 championship with a 65-43 win over Ferndale and it’s likely they’ll receive a No. 1 seed for the upcoming H-DNL postseason tournament.

And with that in mind, the SB girls will go into the Niclai tournament as one of the teams to beat and a strong contender to reach another final.

The conference championship makes the Crusaders our co-team of the week this week, along with the St. Bernard’s boys, who also secured at least a share of their Little 4 championship with a win over Ferndale on Thursday.

Both SB teams are 4-0 in conference play with two games remaining next week before each advances to the Dick Niclai tournament, which gets under way on Feb. 10.

This week’s athlete of the week, meanwhile, goes to a College of the Redwoods basketball player, Brandon Lucas.

The standout sophomore is enjoying a big season with the Corsairs and really stepped up when his team needed it most this week.

On Wednesday night, he was sensational in leading the CR men to victory in a must-win game if they are to remain in the hunt for this year’s conference championship.

Lucas exploded for 34 points as the Corsairs beat Shasta 96-88.

ATHLETE OF THE WEEK

Brandon Lucas

College of the Redwoods, Sophomore

Lucas was the difference maker in Wednesday’s big conference win, a victory that moved CR (4-2) within half a game of Golden Valley Conference leaders Butte (4-1) in the standings.

The Santa Rosa native, who played high school ball at Montgomery, was phenomenal from downtown and finished with 10 3-pointers in the win, as the Corsairs rallied from an 11-point first-half deficit.

CR head coach Ryan Bisio described it as “a legendary shooting performance” for the program.

For more on his big night, see Explosive Lucas leads the way as Corsairs rally to beat the Knights …

TEAMS OF THE WEEK 

St. Bernard’s Boys Basketball

St. Bernard’s Girls Basketball

Both Crusaders teams continued to roll this week, with conference clinching victories over Ferndale.

The two teams are each 4-0 in conference play and will be expected to clinch the Little 4 pennants outright next week, before they get set for the always-highly-anticipated Niclai tournaments.

Head coaches Matt Tomlin (girls) and Issac Gildea (boys) and their staffs have done a remarkable job, as always, and have their teams poised for a busy and successful run in February, including deep runs in the North Coast Section postseason and possibly the state playoffs.

The girls are not just the defending Division-4 state champs, but they are ranked No. 1 in the section and No. 3 in the state among D-5 programs this week.

The SB boys, who are a D-6 program, are also ranked No. 1 in their division in the section, as well as No. 1 in the state.