GIRLS POWER RANKINGS — So who is the best team in the H-DNL?

By barstoolfanatics on February 8, 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Arcata Tigers are this year’s Big 5 champs.

By Ray Hamill — So who is the best girls basketball team in the H-DNL this season?

We might be about to find out.

Last year, the Arcata and St. Bernard’s girls faced off in a thrilling NorCal Division-4 championship game at College of the Redwoods, a matchup that captivated the local community.

This year, these two schools are clearly the best two teams in the league, with each completing a perfect run through conference play this past week.

But they have not played each other this season, something many local fans will be helping to see in next week’s Dick Niclai tournament.

Of course, that’s far from guaranteed and both schools will need to navigate tricky semifinals at College of the Redwoods on Thursday night if they are to play each other in Friday’s tournament final.

It could be a particularly tricky matchup for the Crusaders in their semifinal, against either Eureka or McKinleyville, teams that played them close in regular-season matchups.

For now, the Tigers and Crusaders remain deadlocked atop our Power Rankings for the third straight week, although that’s likely to finally change next week, one way or the other.

The Loggers remain at No. 3, also for the third straight week, after their close loss at Arcata on Friday night.

The Eureka girls have lost just four times all season, and their only three losses in the past two months came against either Arcata (twice) or St. Bernard’s.

If the Eureka girls can successfully navigate Tuesday’s opening-round game against a dangerous McKinleyville team, they’ll get another matchup against St. Bernard’s, the team they defeated in last year’s tournament final.