Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from the Del Norte and Montgomery game at the Arcata tournament on Thursday.

By Ray Hamill — At this rate, the Del Norte Warriors and Eureka Loggers will be well acquainted by the time league play rolls around in the new year.

On Friday afternoon, the two Big 5 rivals will face off for the second time in seven days at the Jerry Paul Arcata Invitational Basketball Tournament.

The Warriors and Loggers also played each other in the championship game at the Yreka tournament last weekend, with Del Norte prevailing 59-55 in overtime.

Both schools dropped their tournament openers at Arcata on Thursday.

The Warriors lost 52-48 to Montgomery, while Eureka fell 78-52 to South Medford.

Later in the day, the host Tigers won their tournament opener, defeating Red Bluff 69-46 to advance to the semifinals.

In other games on Thursday, the Hoopa Warriors beat Big Valley 67-22 and the McKinleyville Panthers won their opener at the Mt. Shasta tournament, while welcoming back an old friend in the process.

With senior Bode Douglass returning from injury earlier than expected, the Panthers defeated Yreka 53-36.

The Loggers started their game well, opening up an early 9-2 lead, but a hot-shooting South Medford team would settle in and began to take control.

Owen Hiscox had a good game for Eureka and finished with a team-high 14 points, while Kyle Giacone, Brayden Bermers and Xavier De La Rosa Alcantara each added nine points.

Hiscox shot the ball well, while Bermers gave the team a boost after getting the start.

“He really opened up the game early with a couple of big shots,” Eureka assistant coach Andrew DeHart said of Bermers, a sophomore.

Giacone, another sophomore, also has been playing well through the early season and that continued to be the case at both ends of the floor on Thursday for the standout point guard.

Friday’s game between Eureka (4-2) and Del Norte (4-2) tips off at 3:30 p.m.

“We know tomorrow’s game will be a tough matchup with Del Norte,” DeHart said. “So we’re looking forward to shaking this one off and getting ready for a tough one tomorrow.”

The Warriors, meanwhile, were involved in a close game on Thursday, but couldn’t quite seal the deal and saw their four-game winning streak end.

“The kids played well on defense,” Del Norte head coach Cris Rice said. “Fifty points is a good number, we just had too many turnovers and we’re not consistent on the offensive end.”

Sawyer Fry scored a team-high 13 points in the loss, and also had six rebounds, while Damian Escalera finshed 12 points.

Ty Blue added 10 points, Justin Cushmann had six points and a team-high seven assists, and Kanyon Starkey chipped in six points.

“Kids played hard against a very athletic Montgomery team,” Rice added. “I give their team credit for weathering our storm late and finishing the game.”

Arcata 69, Red Bluff 46

The Tigers got off to a fast start and never looked back, comfortably taking care of business in their AIBT opener.

“Playing at home in your own tournament, and the first time playing at home all year, the guys were pretty amped up,” Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard said. “I was pretty pleased with our effort and our overall general attitude in that first quarter. Everybody was ready to go from the opening tip.”

Luke Lemke scored a team-high 22 points in the win, as the Tigers improved to 4-4 on the season. 

Elias Gomez added 12 points for the tournament hosts.

The big news for the Tigers was the return of Jack Luh, an influential and experienced senior who was playing his first game of the year after recovering from an injury.

“It was nice. It was the first time all year we had our full compliment of players,” Maynard said. “It was nice to have (Luh) back. He’s such a good player and such a good kid.”

The Tigers will play in the second semifinal on Friday night at 8 p.m.

McKinleyville 53, Yreka 36

The Panthers got tournament play off to a winning start at Mt. Shasta with a comfortable win over Yreka, although the performance was far from perfect.

“Not our greatest showing by far this season, but our defense was able to hold us together for the night,” McKinleyville head coach Chris Davis admitted. “Just one of those nights when easy put-backs and layups roll out and open jumpers didn’t fall.”

Neil Moon scored a team-high nine points in the win, while Ray Turner added eight points and Jeremiah Smith and Lucas Jones each chipped in seven points.

Douglass returned to action much earlier than expected after recovering from a torn ACL he suffered in the spring and saw limited game time in the win.

“It was nice bringing him back into the fold and beginning that chemistry in a game situation with our group,” Davis said. “He put so much work into his recovery so he could get to try to play his senior year, but we definitely didn’t expect him back this early.

“His recovery has been nothing short of incredible. We’re so happy for him and our team just got that much stronger.”