Damian Escalera scored a game-winning basket on a buzzer beater at the Anderson tournament on Friday evening, as the red-hot Del Norte Warriors stretched their winning streak to five straight with a 58-56 win over Trinity.

The thrilling finish sends the Warriors on to a third straight Anderson tournament championship game, and on Saturday they’ll try to make it three straight tourney titles.

Check out video highlights of the play above …

In other tournament action on Friday, Arcata lost to Pleasant Valley at the Red Bluff tournament 60-56, but the Tigers learned some valuable lessons along the way.

The McKinleyville boys lost their semifinal at the Albany tournament, and St. Bernard’s made it five straight wins with a victory over Middletown in the Kelseyville tournament semifinal.

On Thursday night, Shawn Schmidt had a career night as South Fork beat Upper Lake at their own Gene Cotter Memorial tournament.

Escalera’s late heroics secured a fifth straight win for the Del Norte boys, who improved to 9-2 and have lost just one of their last 10 games.

The junior guard broke a late tie with his game-winning layup as time expired.

The win was the second in tournament play for the Warriors, who also defeated Anderson 68-42 on Thursday.

Sophomore Ty Blue also impressed in Friday’s win and posted a double-double, scoring a team-high 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting from the floor and pulling down a team-best 11 rebounds.

“Ty Blue played really well,” Del Norte head coach Cris Rice said of the sophomore, who has adapted well to the varsity level this season. “That was probably his best game. He wanted it.”

Despite the thrilling finish, it was far from a perfect game for the Warriors against a good Trinity team that saw an eight-game winning streak end and suffered just a second loss on the season.

“I’ve got to give Trinity a lot of credit,” Rice said. “They play aggressive style of defense, with a lot of pressure, and our kids battled their physicality and pressure.”

Escalera finished with 11 points, a team-high nine assists and three steals, and nailed seven of his eight free throw attempts, while Sawyer Fry added 10 points, six boards and three steals.

File photo

Markus Parras had eight points, while Justin Cushmann finished with seven points and Kanyon Starkey chipped in six points.

“I’m proud of my boys for persevering through a very close game after having three consecutive wins by large margins,” Rice said. “Nice to see them handle the pressure in the close game.”

The Warriors also won their tournament opener on Thursday, beating Anderson 68-42.

Fry posted a double-double, finishing with 15 points 10 boards and six assists, while Escalera finished with 15 points seven rebounds and four assists.

“We did some things well at times, but we struggled to execute what we wanted to do,” Rice said of Thursday’s game. “We did well in transition at times.”

Parras added 10 points in the win, while Starkey had eight points and six boards and Cushmann had eight points.

All nine Del Norte players scored in the win.

The Warriors will play another physical team, Redding Christian, in Saturday’s championship game, before taking on a tough South Medford team on Dec. 27.

“The next two games will tell us a lot about ourselves,” Rice said.

Saturday’s championship game is set for 1:30 p.m.

Pleasant Valley 60, Arcata 56

Friday’s tournament game at the Red Bluff was a good lesson for the Arcata boys.

The Pleasant Valley defense focused on stopping Arcata standout and former Big 5 MVP Luke Lemke and the strategy worked, with the senior held to just eight points in the loss.

However, that opened up room for a lot of other Arcata players and some of them thrived.

“We played one of our better games of the year, we just couldn’t get stops when we needed them,” said Arcata head coach Kellen Maynard, whose team dropped to 5-7.

Heron Cromwell had one of his best games yet for the team and finished with a team-high 15 points, while Elias Gomez continued to impress and added 10 points, and Jack Luh chipped in eight points.

Other players like Jonah Hessler and Isaac Ingram also impressed as they begin to establish themselves as key members of the squad.

“Jonah played phenomenal,” Maynard said of the senior guard. “He went out there and did the little things.”

Ingram helped set the tone on defense and also made his presence felt.

“They were committing three players in the paint every time (Lemke) had the ball, so he didn’t have good driving lanes,” the Arcata coach added. “We had to try to move guys in and get more movement, so we did a much better job of sharing the ball.

“It was a good learning experience, even for Luke. He’s still got stuff to learn too.”

The Tigers will conclude tournament play at 10 a.m. on Saturday against either Eagle Point or Twelve Bridges.

St. Bernard’s 63, Middletown 48

Senior point guard Prince Latimer had one of his best games of the season as the St. Bernard’s boys made it two straight wins at the Kelseyville tournament and five straight overall.

Latimer finished with a team-high eight assists.

“Prince was absolutely electric tonight,” head coach Pat Shanahan said. “His combination of speed and court vision got us some open buckets. Combined with the purposeful cutting and slashing of Liam (Dyer) and Garrett (Shanahan) and Luke (Brunton) and many others, (that) made our offense hard to guard.”

Dyer posted a double-double, finishing with 27 points, 12 rebounds four assists and four blocks, while Garrett Shanahan also had a double-double, adding 16 points, 19 rebounds, five steals and four assists.

The game was close early on, but the Crusaders began to take control in the second quarter and never looked back.

“The boys adjusted and exploited some opportunities with a relentless focus,” the Coach added. “It was fun to watch.”

Brunton finished with 11 points four rebounds and four steals.

The team defense, particularly in the paint, also impressed.

“We did a tremendous job on their 6-9 post player,” Pat Shanahan said. “Garrett was attacking the rim with relentless focus. Liam was also very aggressive on the glass and on the offensive end.

“At times it seemed like there were two Lukes playing as he was hustling all over the place.”

Trenten Hagler also impressed and has been a big contributor as well on an deep SB roster.

“Trenten has been quite a valuable player thus far, doing whatever is asked of him based on the team needs and stepping up to multiple challenges,” Pat Shanahan said.

Burke Morrow gave the Crusaders some valuable minutes off the bench, while Carson Costa added five points.

With the win, St. Bernard’s improved to 7-1.

Terra Linda 66, McKinleyville 44

The Panthers dropped their semifinal at the Frank Wells Classic at Albany High School.

Henry Turner scored a team-high 10 points in the loss, while Neil Moon added eight points.

Jeremiah Smith also had seven points for the Mack boys, who dropped to 8-3.

The win was the fourth straight for Terra Linda, which improved to 6-2.

The Panthers will close out tournament play on Saturday.

Thursday Night

South Fork 74, Upper Lake 66

After a slow start to the season that saw them drop their opening four games, the South Fork boys are beginning to find their groove.

The Cubs won four of their last five games going into a Friday night showdown against Happy Camp.

On Thursday, they won for the second straight night, following a 71-50 win over Laytonville with an eight-point win over Upper Lake at their own Gene Cotter Memorial tournament.

Shawn Schmidt had a career night against Upper Lake, scoring 37 points and grabbing 15 rebounds for a very impressive double-double.

The Cubs started the slower of the two teams and found themselves 12 points adrift in the second quarter.

But a strong finish to the half, which was keyed by Schmidt and Martin Navarrete, cut the deficit to five at the break.

“We were able to make a few great defensive stops, which lead to points in transition by our junior and senior guards Martin Navarrete and Shawn Schmidt,” South Fork head coach Jacob Trotter said.

The momentum continued to swing the Cubs’ way after the break and a strong third quarter saw them pull even and go into the fourth tied at 56-56.

“Between great team defense, crashing the boards on both ends of the floor, and controlling the tempo of the game we were able to pull ahead and win,” Trotter said.