A rivalry showdown of the two best teams in the HNDL occurred last friday night, and it was a show worth watching. The Arcata Tigers hosted the McKinleyville Panthers, in a gym packed to the brim. Both teams were undefeated and tied for first place in league, but one team had to head home, and it wasn’t the hosts.
“We’re two of the better teams around, they’re a great team, good coaching, good players,” Arcata Head Coach Kellan Maynard said. “It was really big for us to come out this week and play well, and I thought that we did that tonight.”
The Panthers controlled the jump, but their possession ended quickly with a missed bucket and a Tigers rebound. Arcata was able to jump on the board first, with an opening three from standout senior, Luke Moxon.
Moxon was the Big 5 MVP just two years ago, and while injured most of last season, he’s coming back better than ever.
Moxon scored a team high 21-points, while junior Luke Lemke chipped in 18-points.
Lemke seems to be getting back into the groove of things after leading his football team to a state championship. He also was faced with an injury about a month ago during the Red Bluff tournament and is hoping to be back to 100% soon.
“I thought Lemke had his best game of the season so far,” Maynard said.
The Tigers were able to keep their lead and end the first quarter 21-15.
To put them up by 12, junior Jack Luh hit a buzzer beater put back. Luh, who has played with Varsity since last year, made a spot for himself in the starting lineup, and has been very reliable for the Tigers, offensively and defensively. Luh finished out the game as the third highest scorer for Arcata, with seven points.
“Jack Luh really kinda started it early and then he had a couple of buckets in the second half, that were big too,” Maynard said.
The Tigers kept up their momentum throughout the rest of the game, never giving up their lead. They closed out the third 51-35, only allowing McKinleyville nine points.
“We focused a lot on defense this week, we have not been very good defensively,” Maynard said. “We knew if we could play good defense, and hold their guys in check a little bit, we would have a really good chance to get out and get this victory.”
The Panthers were able to pick up the pace a little bit in the fourth, outscoring the Tigers 12-10. But it wasn’t enough for the Panthers to win. Arcata defeated McKinleyville 61-47, and took over the first place spot in the big 5.
“It’s great to be 3-0 in league and have the win over Mack. but were just 3-0,”
Even though McKinleyville was undefeated, their not Arcatas biggest worry.
“We have 5 league games left to go, and it starts with Eureka coming here,” Maynard said.
Arcata will host the Eureka loggers on Wednesday, and it’s expected to be a big match up.
“Eureka’s a really good team this year, and it’s gonna be a really tough battle for us,” Maynard said. “I’m nervous, but Eureka posses a lot of challenges for us, but i’m gonna start working on them this weekend, and Monday’s practice we’ll focus on what we need to do to beat them.”
