Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — As expected, there was little to separate McKinleyville and Eureka in Tuesday night’s Big 5 opener in boys basketball at Mack High.

The race for this year’s conference championship is expected to go down to the wire, and opening night did nothing to alter that perception.

While the Del Norte Warriors were busy securing a thrilling 62-61 win over Arcata on a 3-point buzzer-beater in Crescent City, the Panthers and Loggers served up an entertaining battle of their own, with just three points between them heading into the fourth quarter.

However, the host Panthers would prevail, securing an important 73-67 win over a Loggers team that is also expected to challenge for this year’s Big 5 title.

“We shot the ball pretty well tonight and it’s a good thing we did because we really didn’t have an answer for Xavier (De La Rosa) and Ryder (Mitchell) tonight,” McKinleyville head coach Chris Davis said. “(Eureka head coach) Jimmy (Rodgers) has his guys playing really well right now and you can see the chemistry they have solidified in the pre-league season.”

De La Rosa scored a game-high 26 points and had another standout game on the defensive side of the ball, while Mitchell added 15 points and was a force once again in the paint.

But the Panthers answered the stellar play of the two Eureka standouts on the way to an important victory that gives them some much-needed early momentum in the race for this year’s conference championship.

“First off, you’ve got to give a lot of credit to McKinleyville,” Eureka assistant coach Andrew DeHart said. “Those kids played hard the entire time and they’re a well-coached team.”

Henry Turner had a big night for McKinleyville and scored a team-high 25 points, while teammate Jeremiah Smith added 14 points, including some clutch baskets when the Loggers made a run.

“When we shared the ball with intention tonight we looked like a great team,” Davis said. “There weren’t a ton of shots tonight that I felt like we forced compared to our last few games.”

Bode Douglass added 10 points in the win as he continues to establish himself back in the lineup after a lengthy layoff through injury, while teammate Neil Moon chipped in nine points.

But this was definitely a team win.

“Even though Xavier and Ryder had their fair share of boards, Gaelen (Creighton), Patrick (Wilson), Henry and Bode were working their tails off trying to clean up the glass,” Davis said. “Jeremiah made some clutch shots tonight off the bench, and, along with Henry, kept answering when Eureka made runs.”

Owen Hiscox also had a good night for Eureka and finished with 12 points, while teammate Eddie Gonzalez added eight points.

De La Rosa also impressed on the defensive side of the ball, as he has been doing for much of the season.

“Xavier once again had the difficult task of trying to guard Moon, who is is an exceptional player, and he did a good job of containing him,” DeHart said. “We were really proud of Xavier.”

The Panthers began to put some distance between the two teams in the fourth quarter, stretching the advantage to nine points in the final two minutes, and they were able to hold on late.

“They hit some shots late in the game and really controlled the ball down the stretch,” DeHart said of the Panthers. “But once again we’re proud of our guys.”

Davis knows the race for the Big 5 title is likely to take many more twists and turns before anything is decided.

“We got to be tougher,” he said, “We’re guarding decently, but we give too much ground. We got to body up and stop penetration more or we’re going to put ourselves in some tough positions like we were tonight.”

The Loggers will have a bye in conference play on Thursday, before hosting Shasta at College of the Redwoods on Friday night and traveling to play Piner on Saturday afternoon.

The Panthers, meanwhile, will try to keep their fast start to conference play going when they play at Del Norte on Thursday.