The Fortuna Huskies continued to roll over the rest of the Big 5 in boys basketball on Thursday night, running out to a 59-41 victory at Eureka.

The win, secured with a dominating third quarter, lifts the Huskies to 5-0 in the Big 5 and 20-1 on the season.

In other prep games on Thursday, the St. Bernard’s boys beat Ferndale for the second time in the Little 4 with a come-from-behind 59-44 win at home, while McKinleyville got a much-needed Big 5 win at Arcata by a score of 74-54.

Fortuna 59, Eureka 41

With Drew Gillette sick and missing from the Huskies’ lineup, junior Joeseph McGinnis stepped up and scored 18 points as the Fortuna boys won at Eureka.

For the second straight game, Fortuna took control in the third quarter, outscoring the home team 17-4 for the period to open up a 22-point lead heading into the fourth.

Zac Claus capped a big week with a game-high 20 points in the win, after scoring 35 in Tuesday’s win at McKinleyville.

The Huskies improved to 5-0 in the Big 5, while posting their 20th win for the season, and have dominated the rest of the conference, outscoring them by an average of exactly 25 points a game.

Miles Meynell led the Loggers with 10 points, while Jaeden Thayer finished with eight and Trevor Bell six.

The Eureka boys, who dropped to 1-4 in the Big 5 and 4-12 overall, played the Huskies a lot closer in the third matchup between the two teams this season, after getting blown out twice by 31 and 40 points.

“Definitely a better game than the last one,” Eureka head coach Robbie Thompson said. “I think we ran a few more things. We’ve still got to box out a little better, but I thought we executed and stayed together better.”

The big difference in the game was the third quarter.

“We played solid,” Thompson said. “But I thought we came out a little flat in the third quarter, and then McGinnis got hot and they separated from us a little bit.”

Eureka will travel to play at Hoopa on Saturday, while Fortuna will play at Ferndale on Monday.

Ferndale 44, St. Bernard’s 59

The Crusaders secured the Little 4 season sweep of their rivals with a 15-point win, overcoming an early deficit with a dominating third quarter.

The home team trailed by nine after the opening quarter and by four at halftime, before outscoring the Wildcats 19-4 in the third quarter to pull away.

“Ferndale did a great job of coming out with a different approach on defense and it took us a minute to figure that out and get our energy going,” St. Bernard’s head coach Steve Thrap said. 

The Crusaders took full advantage of a more balanced team performance and improved to 2-2 in the Little 4 and 9-8 overall.

Lane Thrap led the way offensively with 15 points, while Logan Petrusha finished with 13 points, Will Omey 10 and Justin Hagler nine.

“Overall just a great team effort,” Steve Thrap said.

For Ferndale which dropped to 0-4 in the Little 4 and 8-9 overall, Cody Sampson scored a team-high 12 points and Kyler Becksted had 11.

The Crusaders, who have now beaten Ferndale eight straight times, held the Cats without a basket for the third quarter.

The home team went to the free throw line 25 times in the fourth quarter, making good on 15 attempts.

Next up, St. Bernard’s travels to Archbishop Hanna in Sonoma on Saturday, while Ferndale hosts Fortuna on Monday.

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