Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Wednesday night’s game at Eureka High.

By Ray Hamill — Nashya Williams is making an early case for MVP recognition in the Big 5.

The Eureka senior continued her impressive season with another big performance on Wednesday night, as the Loggers tipped off the Big 5 with a comfortable 46-33 win over McKinleyville at Jay Willard Gymnasium.

Also in the Big 5 on Wednesday, the defending champion Arcata Tigers traveled to Crescent City and came away with a 65-50 victory over the Warriors to join the Loggers atop the early standings.

Just four days after a big performance in a non-conference win against Timberline, in which she scored 16 points and had 17 rebounds, Williams continued to lead the way for the Loggers in their Big 5 opener.

The senior standout recorded another double-double against the Panthers, finishing with 12 points and double-digits in rebounds.

“Nashya Williams had a great game again,” Eureka head coach Cliff Napoleon said. “She did really well on both ends of the court. She’s shaping up to make a run at the league MVP.”

Williams’ big night helped the Loggers take control of the game early as they held the visitors to just three points in the opening quarter and stretched their lead to 21 (29-8) at halftime.

The Panthers, however, grew into the game and played a much better second half, outscoring the home team 14-12 in the third period and pulling within 13 points late in the period.

“Eureka took care of the ball in the first half and ran their offense,” McKinleyville head coach Alisha Hunter said. “We couldn’t get going offensively and were moving slow defensively.

“We made some changes at half defensively that finally helped us offensively to make a run.”

Sophomore Lily Battilocchi had a big night in the loss and helped key the second-half rally, finishing with a double-double.

Battilocchi had 15 points and 13 rebounds, while teammate Liana Stumpf added seven points and Avery Bartoo had eight rebounds.

The Panthers also outscored the Loggers 11-5 in the fourth quarter, but the early deficit proved too much to overcome.

“We played a good first three quarters and a very sloppy fourth,” Napoleon said. “I was pleased with the energy that we played with. Need to clean up the sloppy plays and unnecessary reaching and slapping.”

Junior Bella Gast also impressed for the Loggers and finished with 12 points, as the Eureka girls improved to 1-0 in the Big 5 and 10-4 overall.

Despite the loss, the Panthers continued to cause their opponents problems on the boards.

“As a team we rebounded well with 40 boards, but we need another scorer,” Hunter said. “Eureka definitely took advantage of the first half and took advantage of our turnovers.

“Hats off to the efficiency of Eureka and their ability to take care of business form jump.”

With the loss, the Panthers dropped to 0-1 in the Big 5 and 10-6 overall.

Next up, the Loggers will play two non-conference road games this weekend, playing at University Prep on Friday and at Shasta on Saturday.

Up in Crescent City, meanwhile, the Tigers got conference play off to a winning start.

Mae Wolford had a big all-around game in the win and finished with 20 points, nine rebounds and eight steals.

“Overall a great team win,” Arcata head coach Charlie Espinoza said. “Our bench was engaged and really made an impact on the road.”

Tae Wolford, who is the reigning conference co-MVP along with her twin sister, also had a good game for the Tigers and finished with 13 points, four rebounds and four steals.

Sophomore Colby Eisner added 10 points and eight rebounds as she continues to play at a high level for the defending champs, while Anevay Gruetzmacher and Mia Cueto each chipped in eight points to round out an impressive team performance.

It was also an impressive win in a gymnasium that is never an easy place to play for visiting teams.

“Huge props to Del Norte,” Espinoza added. “(Head coach) Nick (Perez) had his girls fired up. The atmosphere in that gym is electric. The entire town came out. That’s what we love. We love energy, we feed off of it. We love when teams give us their best, and I feel the Warriors did just that.”

With the win, the Tigers improved to 1-0 in the Big 5 and 8-3 overall, while the Warriors dropped to 0-1 and 7-6.

No stats were immediately available for Del Norte. Coaches are encouraged to forward details to Humboldt Sports if they would like their players included in our roundups.

Next up, the Tigers will play at Fortuna on Friday night.