Eureka girls fall to Marin Catholic
Loggers no match for top-seeded opponent
Loggers can’t overcome top-seeded Wildcats
The Eureka Loggers girls basketball team was eliminated from the section playoffs on Tuesday night after the team suffered a 5128 loss to the 1-seed Marin Catholic. It puts the fate of the team’s season in the hands of the CIF as there’s still an outside chance that the team might be selected for the state tournament.
It was a difficult assignment for the Loggers to go on the road and beat the top-ranked Wildcats. The difficulty of the matchup was clear in the box score. Marin Catholic got off to a dominant start, leading Eureka 24-10 after the first quarter. The Wildcats added to that advantage to lead 38-14 at halftime. They never came close to relinquishing that lead as they stifled the Loggers’ offense for four quarters.
The matchup was also the result of questionable seeding for the North Coast Section tournament, exemplified by the 2-seed Pinole Valley. Eureka’s record of 24-5 was significantly better than Pinole Valley’s 19-9 mark. The Spartans were also eliminated in an upset in the section playoffs last season. This year, Pinole Valley was blown out at home in the semifinals, losing 45-27 to San Marin.
There’s slim hope that result could give Eureka a more favorable outlook when teams are selected for the state tournament. But that would appear unlikely. If it is the end of the road for the Loggers, they can be proud of a remarkable season in which they were unquestionably the top team in the Humboldt-Del Norte League for the entire year.
7 HDNL wrestlers in state tournament
The CIF Wrestling Championships will begin on Thursday and run through Saturday, and a total of seven boys and girls wrestlers from the HumboldtDel Norte League will be featured across multiple different weight classes.
In the girls bracket, two wrestlers from Fortuna and one from Del Norte were seeded in the tournament. The Huskies will be represented by Chloe Cox in the 106 division and Lindsay Bibby in the 170 division. And for the Warriors, their lone wrestler is Brianna Busse in the 126 division.
On the boys side, Arcata leads the way with two selections along with one from Hoopa Valley and one from Fortuna. For the Tigers, Dakota Sanders will compete in the 113 division and Josh Hannan will compete in the 132. The Huskies’ Mason Evanow will be wrestling in the 120 division. And Hoopa’s Gerard Marshall will compete in the 285 division.
The CIF state tournament will be held at Mechanics Bank Arena in Bakersfield.