File photo – The McKinleyville Panthers

A pair of Big 5 rivals continued their preparation for the upcoming conference schedule with mixed results in boys basketball on Friday.

The McKinleyville Panthers opened a two-day road trip with a 53-43 loss to a quality Marin Academy team.

The loss was the third in four games for the Panthers, who dropped to 9-5 on the season.

The Del Norte Warriors also were in action at the Bandon High tournament and won for the second straight day to advance to the championship game.

The Warriors opened the tournament with a 67-45 win over South Umpqua on Thursday and followed that with a 50-41 semifinal win over Siuslaw on Friday.

The impressive Warriors, who are now 12-4, will play for a third tournament championship on Saturday night, having also claimed tournament titles at Yreka and Anderson in December.

Damian Escalera led Del Norte in scoring in Friday’s semifinal and finished with 13 points as well as four assists, while Sawyer Fry added 11 points and had four steals.

Sophomore Ty Blue also had a good game in the win, adding eight points on 4-of-4 shooting, as well as nine rebounds, five blocked shots and four steals.

Justin Cushmann also had eight points.

“We generated our offense through defensive pressure,” Del Norte head coach Cris Rice said. “We did a good job sharing the ball and putting a lot of pressure on them on defense.”

That resulted in a lot of turnovers, and the Warriors took advantage.

Fry suffered an injury in the win but played through the pain, and while he remains a game-time decision for Saturday’s tournament decider he is expected to be ready to go for Tuesday night’s league opener against Arcata in Crescent City.

On Thursday night, meanwhile, the Warriors took care of business against South Umpqua with a big second half.

File photo – The Del Norte Warriors

Trailing by two at halftime, Del Norte would outscore the Lancers by 24 points over the final two quarters.

Markus Parras scored a team-high 18 points in the win, while, Kanyon Starkey added 12 points and Escalera chipped in 10 points.

Fry and Blue each added eight points to round out a balanced team performance on the offensive end.

Regardless of Saturday’s outcome, the Warriors have enjoyed a good pre-conference schedule and will carry plenty of momentum into the Big 5 with several different players stepping up on different nights for a team that is expected to contend for the conference championship.

“We’ve had a good showing in our preseason tournaments,” Rice said. “We feel we can play with anybody, and we feel we’re tested and excited about starting league.”

Marin Academy 53, McKinleyville 43

The Panthers started fast on Friday but were unable to maintain the momentum against a Wildcats team that improved to 13-3.

Henry Turner led McKinleyville in scoring with 13 points and helped key the fast start by nailing his first three 3-point attempts.

That helped put the Panthers up 19-8 after the opening quarter, but they were outscored 45-24 for the remainder of the game.

“Unfortunately after the first we just didn’t step up to the toughness challenge, both physically and mentally,” McKinleyville head coach Chris Davis said. “50/50 balls went their way, telegraphing passes against a zone, not being strong with the ball.”

McKinleyville also hit just 3 of 11 free-throw attempts.

“We’re not going to win any games shooting like that and turning the ball over like we did,” Davis added.

Neil Moon added 11 points in the loss, while Pat Wilson did a good job rebounding and “moved well without the ball in their zone,” according to the coach.

The McKinleyville boys will try to get back to winning ways when they play at Piedmont on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m.