Photos by Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – The Tigers and Huskies played their game in front of a loud and enthusiastic home crowd at Arcata High on Friday night.

The Arcata Tigers continued their impressive start to the season and advanced to a tournament championship game for the second straight week with a 56-45 win over Fortuna at their own tournament on Friday night.

Garrett Hall led the home team with 22 points, while Mason Railsback and Marcus Bensen each finished with eight points and Niko Zambas seven.

With the win, the Tigers are now 5-1.

Bo Cox led the Huskies with 11 points, while Branson Gans finished with eight.

Fortuna is now 3-2.

Arcata will play for the championship at 6 p.m. on Saturday.

Arcata’s Jack Taylor

Eureka 69, McKinleyville 49

The Loggers opened up an early double-digit lead and were able to keep the Panthers at bay after that, holding on for a win at the Arcata tournament.

Jaeden Thayer continued his impressive start to the season with another big game, finishing with a game-high 19 points in the win, as the Eureka boys evened their record at 3-3.

“We played well in spots, and in spots we were not so good,” Eureka head coach Robbie Thompson said. “But we’ll get there. We’re still a work in progress.

Miles Meynell added 12 points in the win, while  teammate CJ Chaidez finished with nine points and Cahliel Garner and Jackson Giacone each had seven.

“We did some good things. We had some balanced scoring,” Thompson said. “We’ve just got to cut down on some turnovers.”

Thomas Locatelli and Freddie Sundberg each finished with 12 points for the Panthers, who lost for the second straight day in tournament action.

Michael Boatright added nine points in the loss and Max Combs seven, as the Panthers outscored the Loggers in each of the second and third quarters to pull within eight points heading into the fourth quarter.

The Loggers, however, closed out the stronger of the two teams, outscoring the Mack boys 19-7 in the fourth.

The Panthers (1-4) will play at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, while the Loggers will play at 3 p.m.

South Fork 66, Athenian 65

Alex Harding hit a game-winning buzzer-beater to lift the Cubs to a thrilling 66-65 win over Athenian at the California School for the Deaf tournament on Friday.

Cameron Messenger led the Cubs offensively with 16 points, while Riley Gallagher had 15 points and Tyler Bates and Harding 12 apiece.

The Cubs improved to 6-2 with the win and will play for the tournament championship on Saturday.

On Thursday, the Cubs opened tournament play with a 53-35 win over Fremont Christian.

Bates paced the South Fork boys with 18 points while Gallagher finished with 15 points.

St. Bernard’s 56, St. Helena 68

The Crusaders suffered their first loss of the season at the John McMillan Classic in Cloverdale on Friday, falling to St. Helena.

The Crusaders, who are missing several players still playing football, are now 1-1 on the season.

Ayden Hamanaka led the way offensively with 14 points, while Remy Campbell had 13 points and Evan Hodges and Louis He eight points each.

St. Helena got off to a fast start with five of their eight 3-pointers coming in the first quarter.

Ferndale 48, Durham 39

The Wildcats tipped off the Trinity tournament with a nine-point win over Durham on Friday night.

Tristen Martin led the way offensively for the Ferndale boys with 14 points, while teammate Emmitt Albee finished with 13 points.

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Ray Hamill writes at humboldtsports.com, where you can read lots more about sports in Humboldt County.