Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] The Arcata Tigers took a big step towards defending their Big 5 championship in girls basketball this week as we reached the halfway point of conference play. Hello and welcome to this week's KMUD News Sports Report. I'm Ray Hamill with humboldtsports.com we'll have more on the Tigers big week in just a moment as we break down all of the big local sports stories of the week, including all the latest high school and college basketball news, why it's been a big winter on the basketball courts for two Mendocino county schools, a look ahead to the local baseball season open and how one HDNL school honored a local legend this week. But first up, it was a good week for the Arcata High girls basketball team. The Tigers welcomed the Eureka Loggers to Arcata for a pivotal Big Five showdown on Wednesday night and got the better of their rivals with a dominating 69:50 win. With the victory, head coach Charlie Espinosa and his players closed out the first half of conference play 40 and they have dominated all four of their big five opponents so far, winning their games by an average of more than 2025 points. The Loggers came into Wednesday's game tied for the conference lead, but the loss dropped them to 3 1. Also on Wednesday night, the Del Norte girls got an important win at Fortuna, defeating the Huskies 4837 and improving to 2. 2 in conference. The victory gives the warriors sole possession of third place in the Big 5 standings and keeps them on track to secure a place in next month's HDNL postseason Dick Nikolai Tournament. Despite three losses over the first half of conference play, the Huskies REM in the chase for a place in the Nicolai tournament and are 13 in the Big Five. The McKinleyville Panthers, who had a midweek buy in conference play, are.04 in the Big Five. The second half of the Big Five schedule continues on Friday night when Del Norte travels to Arcata and eureka plays at McKinleyville in Little Four girls action. Meanwhile, the St. Bernard's Crusaders continue to roll with a dominating 73. 9 win over South Fork last weekend as they improved to 2. 0 in conference play.
[00:02:05] Also in the Little Four, the Ferndale Wildcats ended a three game losing streak with a 5735 win over Hoopa, leaving both schools one and one in conference one win ahead of the 02 South Fork Cubs. Little Four action continues on Friday night with St. Bernards traveling to Hoopah and Ferndale playing at South Fork in local non conference action. This week, the St. Bernards girls hosted Arcata in a thrilling showdown on Saturday night in what has become the best girls basketball rivalry on the north coast over the past few years. The top two teams in the area served up a high scoring classic with the tigers overcoming a nine point deficit in the fourth quarter on the way to a 7674 win. The victory ended a four game losing streak to the Crusaders dating back to February of 2023, including heartbreaking defeats in the all local Division 4 NorCal championship game at College of the Redwoods two years ago as well as a narrow loss to SB in last year's Dick Nicolai Tournament championship game.
[00:03:08] The Crusaders, who bounced back with a 5941 win at McKinleyville on Tuesday, have won seven of their last eight games and are now 145 overall while the Arcata girls have won six straight and are now 123 on the season.
[00:03:23] In local boys basketball, meanwhile, the Arcata Tigers kept their playoff hopes alive with a much needed 6541 win at Eureka in Big 5 action on Tuesday night. Also on Tuesday, the Del Norte boys defeated Fortuna 6744 in Crescent City. Big five leaders the McKillyville Panthers had a buy in conference play on Tuesday after closing out the first half of their Big Five schedule with a dominating 6651 win over Arcata late last week. With the second half of conference play beginning late this week, The Panthers are 40 in the Big 5, followed by Del Norte, Eureka and Arcata who were all two and two and tied for second after Tuesday's games. Fortuna is win this in conference at 04 in the little form. Meanwhile, it looks as if no one can stop the red hot St. Bernard's Crusaders. Late last week the ESP boys defeated South Fork 7041 to go to 20 in conference. The Crusaders, who also had big non conference wins over del Norte and St. Vincent de Paul over the weekend, have won 15 straight games to go to 171 on the season and have not suffered defeat since December 6th. Also in the Little Four late last week, Ferndale got the better of Hoopa 6559 to leave both schools 11 conference in Mendocino county, the Laytonville and Anderson Valley girls teams are enjoying good seasons. The two schools are tied for the conference lead in the North Central League 2 with identical 61 records. The Laytonville girls are 123 overall and ranked an impressive number 62 out of 153 programs in the north coast section while Anderson Valley is 103 and ranked number 83 in local college basketball. It was a disappointing weekend for the Cal Poly Humboldt women's team. Late last week, the Jacks were tied for the California Collegiate Athletic association lead with an 80 record, but back to back losses to Chico State on Thursday and Saturday dropped them to third in the standings, trailing Chico and Cal Poly Pomona. The Humboldt men also played back to back games against Chico and swept their biggest conference rivals to remain among the conference leaders. The Jacks are now 73 in conference play and third in the standings, trailing unbeaten conference leaders Cal State, East Bay and second placed Dominguez Hills. The Jacks also are 9 and 7 overall. It was also a good weekend for both College of the redwoods teams. The CR men defeated Siskiyous 7057 to go to 30 in the Golden Valley Conference while the CR women got the better of the Eagles to go to 2:1 in conference play.
[00:06:03] Switching gears Believe it or not, the local baseball season gets underway this weekend. College of the Redwoods and Mendocino College will The new season started with a three game series in Ukiah, including a double header of action on Saturday with game one set for 11am and rounding out another busy week in local sports, Saint Bernards honoured a former player and coach before the school's boys basketball game against Del Norte on Saturday.
[00:06:29] The Crusaders named their new court coach Robbie Court after Bob Robertson, a longtime Saint Bernards coach and booster who also enjoyed a successful run as coach of the Arcata boys team, which included a trip to the NorCal championship game in 1997. And that's this week's KMUD News Sports Report. Until next time, I'm Ray Hamill with humblesports.com.
