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The St. Bernard’s girls bounced back from a Saturday night loss to Arcata with a 59-41 non-conference win at McKinleyville on Tuesday.

The Little 4 leaders, who are No. 2 in the most recent Humboldt Sports Power Rankings, took care of business against their Big 5 opponents and improved to 14-5 on the season.

The win was the Crusaders’ seventh in their last eight games, while the loss was the sixth straight for the Panthers, who dropped to 10-10 on the season.

“The girls came out playing great full-court defense tonight and moved the ball well against McKinleyville’s zone offense,” St. Bernard’s head coach Matt Tomlin said. “We controlled the tempo and picked up a nice team victory.”

Junior CJ Figas continued to impress for St. Bernard’s and finished with a team-high 15 points, while teammate Carli Baum added 14 points and Samantha Sundberg finished with 13 points.

The Crusaders took control of the game in the first half and led 38-11 at the break.

“Once again we came out slow and St. Bernard’s made us pay for it,” McKinleyville head coach Alisha Hunter said. “They hit some big shots and took care of the ball.

“We didn’t close out quick enough. St. Bernard’s ability to hit 3s made it hard to adjust with our tempo.”

The Panthers, however, would grow into the game and played a better second half after making some adjustments at halftime.

“(We) finally got the ball moving,” Hunter said. “We were able to force 18 turnovers and really began to push the ball on offense. We scraped our way back into the game, but the halftime deficit was too big for us to come any closer.”

McKinleyville’s Lily Battilocchi had a double-double in the loss as she continues her impressive sophomore season, finishing with 14 points and 14 rebounds to go with four blocks, while fellow sophomore Olivia Murphy had a solid all-around game and added four points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals.

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Avery Bartoo and Liana Stumpf each added seven points for the Panthers, while Cabella Carper chipped in four points.

Alyssa Boham added seven points for St. Bernard’s, while Sariah Vainuku and Paula Bullock each chipped in three points.

Some of the bench players also impressed for the Panthers in the second half, including Betty Weldon, who “brought the energy and took care of the ball tonight,” according to her coach, as well as Aunika Herman.

“I think two big takeaways from tonight’s game was the fact they battled until the end, (and) the second being we finally got to see the ability of our freshman Jojo Marsh,” Hunter said afterwards. 

“Even though we took another loss tonight, we’re building a stronger foundation for our future.”

Next up, on Friday night, the Panthers will host Eureka in Big 5 action, while the Crusaders will play at Hoopa in the Little 4.

The SB girls will also travel to play Eureka in an always-anticipated non-conference showdown on Saturday with tip off set for 6 p.m.