Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – Action from Saturday’s game at St. Bernard’s.

The St. Bernard’s Crusaders stretched their winning streak to 14 straight games with a non-conference win over Del Norte on Saturday afternoon.

The SB boys, who have not lost a game since Dec. 6, improved to 16-1 with the 71-52 win.

Also in action on Saturday, the Fortuna Huskies defeated South Fork 66-54 in non-conference action.

Del Norte started strong at St. Bernard’s, but the Crusaders would grow into the game and carried a 32-18 lead into halftime.

And after that there was no way back for the Big 5 school.

“Coach (Cris) Rice had his squad ready early,” St. Bernard’s head coach Pat Shanahan said of the Warriors. “They came out on fire and we struggled in the first quarter.”

The Crusaders began to play more like a team after the opening quarter.

“Then we started sharing the ball instead of trying to force buckets on the offensive end,” Shanahan added.

“That’s a good team,” Rice said of St. Bernard’s. “That’s the best team we’ve played, and you’ve got to give them a lot of credit.”

The Warriors shot just 17 percent from 3-point range, which obviously did not help their cause going up against the red-hot Little 4 leaders, and many of those shots were uncontested, adding to the visitors’ frustration.

Carson Costa scored a team-high 22 points for the Crusaders and also had eight rebounds, while teammate Liam Dyer added 21 points and seven boards.

Prince Latimer also impressed in the win and had 16 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Three players finished in double digits in scoring for the Warriors, who dropped to 14-7.

Ty Blue scored a team-high 14 points, while Damian Escalera added 13 points and Sawyer Fry chipped in 10 points. 

The Crusaders also had a good assists to turnover ratio, finishing 17:10.

“Best ratio we have had all year,” Shanahan said. “We need to build off of that experience on Monday versus St. Vincent de Paul.”

Fortuna 66, South Fork 54

Kye Hawthorne enjoyed another big performance for the Huskies against the Cubs, as he continues his impressive run of games.

On Saturday, the junior standout finished with 14 points as the Fortuna boys took care of business against the Little 4 school.

“Kye was a force once again and is establishing himself down low,” Fortuna head coach Norm Sotomayor said. “He’s a load to handle and I love his effort.”

Tanner Franklin also impressed for the Huskies and finished with a team-high 15 points, while Jack Stacy had 11 points and Will Shaw finished with nine points.

No stats were immediately available for the Cubs, but junior Martin Navarrete had a good game shooting the ball from 3-point range and helped keep his team in the game.

“(He) was knocking down contested 3s and keeping them in the game,” Sotomayor said of the South Fork standout.

With the win, the Huskies improved to 7-14, while the Cubs dropped to 8-10.