Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Arcata players react during Wednesday’s game against Hoopa.

By Ray Hamill — The most successful boys program in Dick Niclai tournament history will get a chance to add to its tally of championships on Friday night.

The Arcata Tigers are back in the tournament final after a comfortable 68-37 win over Hoopa in Wednesday’s semifinal at College of the Redwoods.

They will play McKinleyville in Friday’s championship game at Lumberjack Arena on what is traditionally one of the most anticipated days on the local sporting calendar.

This is the fifth straight season the Tigers have qualified for the Niclai final and the fourth straight for head coach Kellen Maynard, whose team defeated St. Bernard’s in last year’s decider.

The Tigers have won the tournament 10 times, which is twice as much as the next most successful program in tournament history, Del Norte.

All 10 of their championships have come in the last 15 seasons, and judging by Wednesday’s performance they will be tough to stop once again on Friday.

They quickly took control of the game and led 25-6 after the opening quarter.

“I thought we started the game like against Eureka (last week), you know like good, fast pace early on,” Maynard said. “I like our fast break, and we’ve been working on it a lot, trying to push the tempo, push the ball more. We feel like we have an advantage when we get out on a run against teams.”

The fast start slowed down in the second quarter and the Warriors outscored the Big 5 champs 13-10 for the period, something Maynard said they need to work on.

But going up against a dominant Tigers team that has now won 10 straight games and has not felt the sting of defeat since 2024, there was no way back for the Warriors.

“Our overall effort was better longer than it was against Eureka,” Maynard added. “I like our effort tonight.”

Luke Moxon continued to impress for the Tigers and scored a game-high 18 points, including 14 in the first half.

The Tigers led 35-19 at halftime, and with the game well in hand late Maynard went deep to his bench.

Luke Lemke also impressed for the Tigers and added 15 points, including eight in the third quarter, while Dayquann Dunn finished with 10 points and Jack Luh chipped in eight points, including six in the opening quarter to help key the fast start.

It was the second straight year the Hoopa boys fell to Arcata in the tournament semifinals.

They were led again by standout senior Brandon Romero, who scored 10 points, while teammate Lyle McKinnon added eight points.

Ish E-Kor also scored six points for Hoopa and Joshua Moon added six points.

Maynard also praised the play of Eric Jackson, whom he felt did a good job attacking. 

:I would say probably like Moxon, Jackson, Lemke as the three guards really did a good job,” he said. “When we couldn’t get anything inside going, they took over outside driving to the basket.”

Friday’s championship game is set for 7:30 p.m., and despite how often the Tigers get there Maynard says it never gets old.

“It means everything when we’re here,” said the coach, who also played in the championship game during his time at Fortuna High. “I mean you’re playing in front of everybody. This is the feature week. Everybody (who’s) playing has earned the right to play in this tournament.

“It’s such an exciting time, such an exciting tournament for everybody.

“We’ve got CR packed right now for a game and when we play on Friday at Humboldt it doesn’t matter who we play, SB or Mack, that gym is going to be packed to the brim too

“So it’s exciting for the kids who get to play in a really neat venue that’s local and play at a really high level with a lot of people.”