File photo – Arcata’s Luke Moxon

After a 12-day layoff between games, the Del Norte Warriors won their North Coast Section playoff opener on Tuesday night, but other than that it was a disappointing night for the H-DNL teams.

The three other local high school boys teams in action all fell at the first hurdle, leaving just three remaining H-DNL schools still in contention for a section crown.

In Division 1, the Arcata boys fell 73-54 at Alameda after being forced to travel for their playoff opener despite being a league champion.

In Division 3, the Eureka Loggers traveled to Berkeley but came up short in a 73-41 loss, while in Division 5 Hoopa lost 62-54 at Athenian.

That leaves just Del Norte, McKinleyville and St. Bernard’s still alive.

The Panthers are in Division 2 and will host Marin Catholic on Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m., while St. Bernard’s is the top seed in Division 6 and will host either San Francisco Waldorf or Round Valley on Saturday night.

Despite finishing fourth in the Big 5 and not playing in last week’s Dick Niclai tournament, the Del Norte boys hit the ground running in their NCS playoff opener, defeating Justin-Siena 43-34 in Crescent City.

The Warriors trailed early 14-7 but quickly found their rhythm and began to take control.

“We got physical, we rebounded and we played good defense,” Del Norte head coach Cris Rice said. 

The Warriors held a sharpshooting Braves team to zero 3-pointers on the night and that proved crucial as they march on to the weekend quarterfinals.

They won with a balanced team performance, with several players contributing.

Michael Webster finished with a double-double, scoring a team-high 12 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.

Ryan O’Laughlin also impressed and added 10 points, while Kanyon Starkey finished with 13 rebounds and seven points.

Starkey, according to Rice, had a really good game, as did teammate Mario Ledezma, who gave the Del Norte boys a huge boost off the bench in the second half.

“He gave us a shot in the arm in the third quarter,” Rice said of the senior, who hit three consecutive baskets. “He came in and he ignited us.”

Ledezma finished with six points, as did Lyon Rigden.

The No. 3 seeded Warriors will play their quarterfinal at home on Friday night against either No. 6 Swett or No. 11 Sonoma Valley.

The Eureka Loggers, meanwhile, had their hands full against Berkeley, a school of more than 4,000 students.

“We knew Berkeley would be a great team,” Eureka assistant coach Andrew DeHart said. “But our guys were focused going into it.”

The No. 6 seeded Yellow Jackets got off to a fast start against the No. 11 Loggers, especially on the defensive end.

“They came out and applied a lot of pressure, and forced us into a slow start offensively,” DeHart said. “Their press gave us fits and they converted our turnovers into points quickly on the other end.’

Led by impressive senior Will Mooney, the Loggers would rally in the second and third quarters and grew into the game.

However, it wasn’t enough against the higher seeds who kept the visitors at bay thanks to some good 3-point shooting.

Mooney finished with a team-high 17 points in his final high school game, and also had four rebounds and a pair of steals.

Humphrey Mbugua added eight points and was “electric off the bench,” according to DeHart, while Owen Hiscox chipped in six points.

“We’re so proud of our group of players, our seniors especially,” DeHart said of the group that includes Mooney, Mbugua, Makai Dennon, Elijah Estrada, Trenton Gerber, Jerome Lyons and Michael Jewell. “(The seniors) exemplify the qualities we hope EHS basketball players possess.

“Tonight wasn’t what we had hoped it would be, but all of our players deserve a lot of credit for their resilience and effort throughout the season.”

The Arcata Tigers also saw their season end earlier than they had hoped.

Alameda came out strong and led 30-10 after the opening quarter, and even though the Tigers would grow into the game — they held the Hornets to just six second-quarter points — the early deficit proved just too much to overcome.

Luke Moxon scored a team-high 13 points for the Tigers, while Dayquan Dunn added 12 points and Jack Luh finished with eight points.

Luke Lemke and Levi Sims each also had seven points and Dawson Vallerga chipped in five points on his return from injury.