THREE H-DNL TEAMS START POSTSEASON
St. Bernard’s girls, Arcata girls and McKinleyville boys tip off CIF playoffs
Three local basketball teams will head to the California Interscholastic Federation state playoffs for a chance at a state championship later this month, with all three first round games tipping off Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
Both the St. Bernard's and Arcata girl's basketball teams will compete in the Division 4 tournament as the top two seeds. The 25-5 Crusaders are the No. 1 seed and will host the No. 16 seed West Campus Warriors who will travel from Sacramento for the first round matchup on Tuesday. West Campus is 22-7 and should provide a good opening round challenge for St. Bernard's. Arcata and St. Bernard's. With their seedings, both Arcata and St. Bernard's would host their first three state playoff games if they advance.
The Crusaders enter the state tournament after bowing out in the semi-finals of the North Coast Section tournament to Cornerstone Christian 70-56. West Campus and St. Bernard's don't have a single common opponent this season but based off MaxPreps rankings, St. Bernard's is ranked 113th in the state while West Campus is ranked 308th. The Crusaders' junior guard Laila Florvilus has averaged 19.75 points-per-game over the last four games for St. Bernard's and that's with Florvilus scoring just four in a 46-12 blowout win over Credo in the NCS playoffs.
In Arcata, the 19-8 will host the Bear River Bruins from Grass Valley Tuesday night for their first-round matchup. The No.2 seeded Tigers fell in the semifinals of the Division 4 NCS to St. Patrick-St. Vincent, who went on to win the section title. Bear River is the No.15 seed after going 23-7 and winning the Division 5 CIF Sac-Joaquin section title with a 61-59 win over Valley Christian.
The lone common opponent between the two teams was Inderkum High School, who both teams played in December, who
Bear River lost to while Arcata got a 56-49 preseason tournament win. Last year in the CIF playoffs, Arcata held the same #2 seed and lost in the opening round to Summit Shasta 52-36 as Arcata hopes to avoid the same fate this season.
The third H-DNL team in CIF playoffs are the boy's McKinleyville Panthers team. After losing to No. 1 seeded Justin-Siena in the semifinals of NCS playoffs, the Panthers will now compete in the Division 5 CIF state playoffs, beginning with a road game Tuesday night against Mt. Shasta in a battle between the eighth and ninth seeds of the bracket. Tuesday's winner would then go on the road to play No.1 seed Athenian High School on Thursday.
McKinleyville and Mt. Shasta have played five of the same teams, including two from the H-DNL with Mt. Shasta losing to both Eureka and St. Bernard's, McKinleyville went 3-1 against the Loggers and 1-1 against the Crusaders this season. The Panthers' find themselves on the road against the Bears despite being ranked over a hundred spots higher in MaxPreps' state ranking with McKinleyville at 324th while Mt. Shasta is 457th.
Mt. Shasta comes into the game after losing the Division 5 NSCIF section title championship to Weed High School. McKinleyville is 20-12 heading into the state playoffs and are the last boy's team in the H-DNL still playing after South Fork fell on Saturday in their NCS championship game.