By Ray Hamill — Wednesday night’s performance at McKinleyville High School was a nice response from the Fortuna Huskies.

After a very impressive December on the basketball courts, the Fortuna girls tipped off the Big 5 with a lot of momentum last week.

But a 30-point conference-opening loss to defending champion Arcata left North Coast fans wondering if the Huskies are legitimate conference contenders.

Whether they can challenge the Tigers or Eureka Loggers for this year’s title remains to be seen, but Wednesday’s performance at least keeps them in the conversation for now.

The Panthers, to their credit, gave their Big 5 rivals all they could handle with what head coach Alisha Hunter described as the “best team basketball” her players have played all season.

The game was close for much of the night, but the visiting Huskies began to take control in the second and continued to lead the way in the third.

The Panthers, however, refused to go down easily and clawed their way back in the fourth, tying the game twice early in the period.

But when they needed it the most, the Huskies rose to the challenge and closed out the game strong, enjoying the better of exchanges down the stretch and pulling out a much-needed 56-47 victory.

With the win, Fortuna improved to 1-1 in the Big 5 and 14-4 overall, while a young McKinleyville team that features several freshmen and sophomore contributors dropped to 0-3 and 10-8.

Big 5 action continues on Friday night with two more games.

The Huskies travel to Eureka and the Panthers make the short trip to play neighbor and rival Arcata.

Both of those games are scheduled to tip off at 7:30 p.m.

Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com