Submitted photo – The St. Bernard’s Crusaders defeated the McKinleyville Panthers in the final of the Mt. Shasta tournament on Saturday afternoon.

Two of the best teams in the H-DNL through the early season faced off in the Mt. Shasta tournament championship game on Saturday afternoon, and one of them came away with a statement win.

The St. Bernard’s boys made it three wins in three tournament games with a 63-46 victory over McKinleyville, improving to 5-1 on the young season.

But head coach Pat Shanahan knows there’s still plenty of work ahead for his team despite the impressive performance.

“We have a lot of respect for (head coach) Chris Davis and his McKinleyville team,” said Shanahan, whose team will play the Panthers again two days after Christmas. “They are extremely skilled. We were fortunate to win this one, but we know they will be ready for the next game a couple of weeks from now.”

Saturday’s game was the fourth in five days for the busy Panthers, who dropped to 7-2.

“St. Bernard’s did a much better job than we did (today) handling adversity and runs throughout the game,” Davis said. “We just took too long to answer at moments and tried playing outside ourselves to bring us back in the second half.”

Liam Dyer paced the Crusaders in scoring and finished with a game-high 27 points, while teammate Carson Costa also impressed and added 23 points.

Dyer played smart basketball, while Costa was ready to go from the opening tip, as he has been for much of the season so far.

“Liam took some great shots and didn’t settle for easy ones,” Shanahan said. “Carson can score the basketball and was focused from the beginning of the game.”

The opportunistic Prince Latimer also had a good game for the Little 4 school and added eight points, while Garrett Shanahan chipped in six points, and Tyler Hinrichs made his presence felt in the paint once again.

“Prince picked his opportunities well,” Pat Shanahan said. “Tyler and Garrett’s rebounding was consistent and strong.”

Trenten Hagler and Luke Brunton each also impressed, giving their teammates a spark off the bench.

“It was a team win full of contributions on both sides of the ball by a number of players,” the coach added. 

The first half was back and forth, with the Panthers closing out the second quarter strong.

But the Crusaders would respond.

“Our kids weathered the storm, regrouped at halftime and focused on our strengths in the second half,” said Pat Shanahan, whose players enjoyed a good third quarter.

Neil Moon capped a big few days in tournament play with a team-high 12 points for McKinleyville, while teammate Jeremiah Smith added 11 points.

Ray Turner and Henry Turner each chipped in eight points.

The Panthers, who are considered by many observers as probable frontrunners for this year’s Big 5, are still a work in progress, like every team in the H-DNL.

“Offensive rebounds were a consistent issue this weekend and we have to improve in this area to take the next step,” Davis said, “Looking forward to having an opportunity to practice three times this week before our next game to keep looking to improve in areas that we’ve seen over the last week that need tightening up.”

Moon is one of the players who has impressed for the Panthers early in the new season and he was named to the all-tournament team for his efforts over the past three days.

“Neil had a nice weekend and was a big leader for us,” Davis said of the senior guard.

Next up, the Panthers will play at the Albany tournament, tipping off against Skyline on Thursday, while the Crusaders will travel for the Kelseyville tournament, which also begins on Thursday.