Warrior girls fall to Crusaders in B-ball

Face Mack in Big 5 opener tonight

Despite a strong final quarter of play, first half difficulties spelled doom for the Del Norte High girls varsity basketball team.

The Warriors lost to St. Bernard’s of the Little 4 Conference 45-39 in Eureka on Tuesday night.

Del Norte struggled for most of the first quarter and was down 17-8 after one period of play and 28-13 at the half.

Problems included turning the ball over three straight times in the final 40 seconds of the second quarter. St. Bernard’s capitalized and scored on all three turnovers.

Del Norte head coach Buzz McCulloch said his players did not seem focused and made way too many mental mistakes in the first half.

The Warriors could not capitalize on easy shot opportunities and on defense left opponents open to score easy baskets from the outside, he said.

Things went slightly better in the third quarter as each team scored nine points, after which the Warriors were behind 37-22.

In the final quarter, Del Norte came alive on both sides of the ball and outscored the Crusaders 17-8 to make the game a competitive contest.

But the comeback attempt came too late as Del Norte fell by six points to drop to 3-9 for the year.

“We have to learn to play for all four quarters,” McCulloch said.

Another factor in the loss was free throws. Del Norte struggled from the charity stripe, going 14-for-32.

Junior Emma Card led Warrior scorers with 17 points. Taylor Cleland scored 10 points.

Samantha Swinger, Panhia Yang and Shauna Ratnour each finished with four points.

Del Norte opens the Big 5 Conference season today on the road against longtime league power McKinleyville.

The varsity game begins at 7:30 p.m. The freshmen play at 4:30 p.m. and junior varsity begins  at 6 p.m.

Reach Bill Choy at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it