Boys’ basketball opened Thursday night for the South Fork Cubs, and despite a thrilling comeback attempt they were defeated 42-35 by the Mendocino Cardinals. The Cubs came out cold, unable to see a good shot for most of the first quarter, and failing to hit what they could see.

Junior guard Dalton Pfau finally got the Cubs on the board when he was awarded free throws for being hacked while driving to the basket. The gap stayed wide, however, more than ten points for most of the game, until the Cubs came alive in the fourth quarter and mounted a comeback, outscoring Mendocino 10-2 at one stretch. It was not to be enough, but the efforts of junior center Jared Storre, junior guard Carlos Ayala, and sophomore forward Bryan Arbuthnot look like promising infusions for the varsity team. Junior Jason Caldwell has made a seamless transition to varsity as well, showing the leadership we were accustomed to seeing from him at the JV level.

Early nerves and a 7 for 21 free throw rate cost the team its home opener, but those are fixable problems and new head Coach Jake Mitchell knows these players well, having worked with many of them since they were sixth graders.

The JV boys also fell to Mendocino, by a score of 42-28.

The boys will be playing along with both girls’ teams today, Tuesday, again at home, this time against Fort Bragg, starting at 3 p.m. with the JV girls. All four games are exhibition games to raise money for the North Coast Section Scholarship program. This is an annual Thanksgiving week tradition with Fort Bragg and South Fork trading off hosting the event from year to year.