Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s seniors Aliyah Vigil, Jocelyn Sundberg and Laila Florvilus were honored before Wednesday’s game.

The St. Bernard’s girls clinched the Little 4 championship outright in girls basketball on Wednesday night with a comfortable 68-4 win over South Fork.

Elsewhere in the Little 4, Hoopa senior Ivy Lamebear had a career night and scored 36 points as the Warriors remained in the chase for second place with a 68-61 win at Ferndale.

“She got on a roll and never stopped,” Ferndale head coach Chris Ardrey said of the Warriors senior, who is enjoying an outstanding season. “It was pretty wild to watch. Everything she put up went in.”

According to Ardrey, Lamebear hit at least four 3s from “Caitlin Clark range.”

No other stats or scoring details were available for Hoopa.

Turnovers proved costly for the Wildcats, who had 12 of them in the fourth quarter alone.

“We turned the ball over way too much in the fourth quarter,” said Ardrey, who added “We just let them dictate our offense and you can’t do that.”

The Warriors started the stronger of the two teams and set the tone in the first quarter, but the home team would battle back and led by three points at halftime and by three after the third quarter.

Thanks in large part to Lamebear, however, the Warriors would close out the game much as they started it and enjoyed the better of exchanges in the final period to secure the win.

“That’s the best I’ve seen Hoopa play all year,” Ardrey said.

Michaela Ellsmore led the way offensively for the Wildcats and finished with a team-high 16 points, while teammate Olivia Gossi added 15 points.

Submitted photo – The Crusaders celebrate their championship win on Wednesday night.

Madison Gossi also had 11 points for the Wildcats, who dropped to 2-3 in conference play and 12-8 overall.

Both Ferndale and Hoopa have qualified for next week’s Dick Niclai tournament, where they will face off in the opening round on Tuesday night.

The conference champion Crusaders, meanwhile, led 30-0 after the opening quarter against a very young South Fork team that features mostly freshmen and sophomores.

Seniors Laila Florvilus, who was named the CalHiSports NorCal Player of the Week on Tuesday, Aliyah Vigil and Jocelyn Sundberg were all honored before the game.

“It was a great senior night as we honored three amazing young ladies who have meant so much to our program,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said. “I am so proud of them for clinching the outright league championship tonight.”

With the win, the Crusaders improved to 5-0 in conference and 24-1 overall and they secured a top seed for next week’s Dick Niclai tournament.

Florvilus scored a game-high 15 points in Wednesday’s win, while teammate Carli Baum added nine points and was one of three freshmen to shine, along with Tally Williams and Leah Stevens, the latter of whom was just called up from the JVs.

“It was also a great night for our three freshmen,” said Tomlin, who added they “all had outstanding games.”

Williams finished with eight points, while Stevens chipped in six points.

CJ Figas and Kayla Maples both also had eight points in the win, while Sahara Tupua finished with six points and Alyssa Boham had four points.