Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Arcata players react during Wednesday night’s game.
By Ray Hamill — One of the Big 5 teams took control of the race for this year’s championship on Wednesday night, while another took a big step towards a place in next month’s Dick Niclai tournament.
The Eureka Loggers traveled to Arcata with the Big 5 lead on the line and both teams carrying unbeaten records into the big showdown, which closed out the first half of conference play.
But the game wasn’t as close as expected, and the host Tigers dominated for much of the night on the way to a statement 69-50 win, improving to 4-0 in the Big 5 and dropping the Loggers to 3-1.
In the other Big 5 game, the Del Norte girls traveled to Fortuna and won 48-37, thanks in large part to some stellar first-half defense that held the home team to just five points before halftime.
With the win, the Warriors took over sole possession of third place in the standings, improving to 2-2 in conference.
The Arcata girls took control of their game with a big second quarter.
They started fast and led 13-5 after the opening quarter before stretching the advantage to an insurmountable 17 points at the break.
They won with another stellar performance by twin sisters Mae and Tae Wolford, who each scored 23 points, as well as some outstanding team defense.
Mae also had eight rebounds and five steals, while Tae added five rebounds and five steals.
“These two have been playing like superstars this year,” Arcata head coach Charlie Espinoza said.
Arcata’s defensive pressure took the Loggers out of their game and the Tigers took advantage of their turnovers.
“We got beat up tonight,” Eureka head coach Cliff Napoleon said. “The pressure they put on us took us out of our comfort zone.
“We had way too many turnovers and way too many missed layups and open shots. But that’s what happens when you play a team like Arcata that pushes the pace. You end up playing faster than you want to.”
Tiarah Maualuga led the Loggers with 12 points, while Violla Kingsang added 10 points and Alena Battle finished with eight.
Betty Miles added 12 points for Arcata and played “confident,” according to Espinoza, while Mia Cueto added six points and played great on-ball defense, the coach said.
But it was the play of three other players who provided the platform for the team success.
“Our bigs Kyla Kinyon, Izzy Allen and Syriah George played phenomenal defense and played so great on Tiarah today,” Espinoza said. “These three made me so proud today with their defensive presence and controlled physicality, and they rotated like studs today. They executed the game plan perfectly.”
Kinyon had seven rebounds, while Anevay “Baby Rattlesnake” Gruetzmacher had a good all-around game and finished with seven rebounds, five points and five assists.
“We know this second half of league is gonna to be tough,” Espinoza said. “We are in for some heavy blows thrown our way and we are embracing it.”
The two teams will meet again in conference play at Eureka High early next month.
Next up, on Friday, Eureka travels to McKinleyville and Arcata hosts Del Norte.
“We’ll learn from this and get ready for McKinleyville on Friday,” Napoleon said.
Del Norte 48, Fortuna 37
There’s still a long way to go in this year’s Big 5, but the Warriors took a big step towards securing a place in the Dick Niclai tournament with an important road win at Fortuna.
The Del Norte defense held the home team to just five first-half points to take control, and although the Huskies grew into the game, a 22-5 halftime deficit was too much to overcome.
“We played a great defensive first half,” Del Norte head coach Nick Perez said.
Neither team was able to get much going on offense early in the game, and the Warriors led 5-0 at the end of the first.
But Del Norte would settle in quicker on offense and scored 17 points in the second quarter, before the Huskies came storming back with a 23-12 third quarter to give themselves a shot at the comeback.
“Fortuna made great halftime adjustments that sped us up on offense, which had us losing sight of their shooter in transition defense,” said Perez, who added “We made just enough shots and free throws to hold on.”
Led by the in-form Macee Marquez, who finished with a game-high 21 points, the Huskies closed the gap to as few as three in the fourth but ran out of gas late.
“Macee did a phenomenal job of leading the team to turn the game around,” Fortuna head coach Tom Chapman said. “Her leadership picked up her teammates and pushed them to get back into the game.”
Freshman Josephine Antonetti and sophomore Jaylee Keeling led the Warriors and finished with 15 points apiece, with the latter particularly clutch in the fourth quarter when her team really needed it.
Keeling scored 10 of her points in the fourth, including two of her three 3-pointers.
Antonetti also had three 3s.
Junior Gianna Antonetti also impressed for Del Norte and finished with seven points, while teammate Bliss Blackburn had four points.
Olivia Scilacci added six points for the Huskies, while Jaydyn Dalton had five points.
Both of those players, along with Taylor Heussler and Tatiana Olson, “pushed hard through the game and never gave up,” Chapman added.
A 7-of-29 performance at the free-throw line, however, was disappointing, as was some “ice-cold shooting,” according to the coach.
Del Norte travels to Arcata on Friday, while Fortuna has a bye.
