Submitted photo – The Del Norte boys won the consolation game at the Arcata tournament on Saturday.

The Warriors won their final tournament game against Red Bluff at Arcata High on Saturday to close out 2-1 over the three days.

Del Norte won comfortably 81-48.

And they succeeded with a balanced team performance, with six of their nine players scoring nine or more points.

“We had a good day,” Del Norte head coach Cris Rice said. “The game got pretty physical, but we were able to run and get our shots. We did pretty good in transition and our defense was pretty solid.”

Sawyer Fry, who was named to the all-tournament team, finished with a team-high 18 points in Saturday’s win, while impressive sophomore Ty Blue added 14 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for a double-double.

Even more impressive, the young player was very efficient, shooting 7-of-7 from the floor.

Markus Parras also finished with 14 points and had a team-best eight assists.

“We had a good tournament. I thought the kids played well,” said Rice, whose team also defeated Eureka 55-50 on Friday. “Markus and Ty Blue had good tournaments, and Sawyer put together three really good games.”

Damian Escalera added 11 points and four assists in Saturday’s win, as the Warriors improved to 6-2, while Rek Alameda and Justin Cushmann each chipped in nine points, with the latter also grabbing five boards.

Escalera also was co-champ of the tourney 3-point competition this weekend.

“We got everybody in and it was a fun game,” Rice said, “The kids played hard.”

The trip to the Arcata tournament was the first in a long time for the Crescent City school, but the coaches and players enjoyed the experience and say they will be back next year.

File photo

“The tournament hosts did a great job,” Rice said. “It was one of the better tournaments we’ve been to. We’ve got to give (Arcata coach) Kellen Maynard a lot of credit.”

A busy pre-league schedule continues for the Warriors next week, with four games in five days, including a non-tournament game at Ferndale on Tuesday night and a trip to the Anderson tournament, which begins on Thursday.

The Warriors are two-time defending Anderson tournament champs.

This week’s trip to Arcata paid off in other ways too, as Rice picked up an additional game against tourney champs South Medford later in the month.

“We want to be challenged. We want to play tough games,” Rice said. “We want to see what we’re made of.”