McKinleyville and Eureka are an even 5-5 against one another since January of 2020, but not for long. The McKinleyville Panthers will head out on the road to challenge the Eureka Loggers at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday. Hopefully McKinleyville focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 15 on Saturday.
After a string of five wins, McKinleyville's good fortune finally ran out. They took a 53-47 hit to the loss column at the hands of St. Bernard's.
The loss doesn't tell the whole story though, as several players had good games. One of the most active was Nick Maher, who dropped a double-double on 12 points and 13 rebounds. He has been hot recently, having posted eight or more rebounds the last four times he's played. Another player making a difference was Cole Armstrong, who scored eight points along with nine rebounds and four steals.
Meanwhile, Eureka struggled with assists on Thursday (Arcata had seven more) and sadly the final score reflected it. Eureka fell 44-33 to Arcata. It was the first time this season that Eureka let down their fans at home.
The losing side was boosted by Michael Jewell, who scored ten points along with five rebounds. The team also got some help courtesy of Julian Goodman, who scored six points along with six rebounds and two blocks.
McKinleyville's defeat ended a four-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 14-7. As for Eureka, their defeat ended a four-game streak of wins at home and dropped them to 12-7.
Keep an eye on the arc in Tuesday's matchup: McKinleyville have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 40.3% of their threes per game. It's a different story for Eureka, though, as they've only drained 2.94% of their threes per game this season. Given McKinleyville's sizeable advantage in that area, Eureka will need to find a way to close that gap.
McKinleyville came up short against Eureka in their previous meeting back in December of 2023, falling 66-55. A big factor in that loss was the dominant performance of Eureka's Jahmil Rippy, who scored 20 points along with four steals. Now that McKinleyville knows the damage he can cause, will they be able to stop him this time? Check MaxPreps.com after the match to find out.
