College of the Redwoods’ men’s basketball team bounced back in a resonant response to their first Golden Valley Conference setback on the road to Feather River last Thursday, downing Lassen 93-63 in another road tilt Saturday to move to 15-8, 4-1 GVC on the year.
Cody Whitmer led the way, scoring 26 points on 8-of-14 shooting from three, Marcos Rosales added 23 and 5-for-10 from deep, Nate Sweet scored 14 with four threes, and Alfonso Medina tallied 12 assists. Luka Radovanovic had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting from the field and Redwoods knocked down 18 threes on the night.
“Our guys prepared well for Lassen’s zone defense and did a great job finding effective patterns,” said CR head coach Justin Claus, “creating movement, and stepping into shots with confidence… the ball moved well, and our spacing and decision-making were strong throughout the game.”
The only down note on the night was a knee injury to Tommy Rotbergs, which may keep him out for the rest of the year. Claus had thought he was playing exceptionally well lately, this game being no exception.
“We were efficient, and you can’t really set up plays to beat a zone,” said Claus. “You really have to find the patterns that create tension and find holes, and our guys were mentally focused and ready to do that; we made 18 threes and were (nearly perfect) inside the perimeter. It was good to see. I think our guys were tuned in not just to the movement and the spacing that was working, but also just getting the right guys in the right spots. Marcos Rosales and Nate Sweet were ready to shoot, and they both shot well. Alfonso didn’t shoot a lot of threes, but made every shot he took inside and found gaps and driving lanes. Kaden (Erlenbush) and Luka were good at finding little pockets for dump-offs and getting dunks here and there for Kaden. All of our guys were focused on doing what we do best, but within the grand scheme of what we needed to do.”
Claus made special mention of Rotbergs’ continuing evolution as a player the past few weeks, athletically confident until his knee injury in the second half.
To Medina’s 12 assists, Claus said, “He just has this unique ability to find space, very agile, and that’s always helped him get to the rim and be a good scorer. But what I feel like he’s really growing into is using that elusiveness to manipulate defenses and be a great passer out of it. (He’s largely been a top-10 state assist man throughout the year).” Claus said he was continuing to grow in terms of how he sets things up.
Defensively, Lassen presented some challenges for CR, with confident scorers who could attack ball screens and hit a midrange pull-up against Redwoods’ drop coverage, prompting a CR adjustment. Lassen then tried to take advantage of mismatches, but “I thought our guys did a good job of not just having a solution early but finding one for the entire game on that side of the court, staying focused even though things were going well offensively, having the urgency to fix defensive problems,” said Claus.
Redwoods was up 47-27 at half and continued to steadily grow the lead.
Shasta is CR’s next opponent, in a home tilt Saturday at 3 p.m. “We took a minute this week to acknowledge where we were in the season,” said Claus. “Halfway through conference, having to play all these teams for a second time (Siskiyous a third time), which comes with its own set of challenges, other teams knowing our stuff. We have to take our preparation a step further and improve on things we thought were some of the issues we had in the Feather game. We’ve been focused on improving our team in general and want to apply the scouting report to Shasta from last time, with the game plan, sharpening it up, and our guys are focused and ready to do that.”
Steve Watson
Mayleah Jackson goes up for two against Siskiyous earlier this year. She would score 14 and have a solid all-around game versus Lassen. (Steve Watson/Contributed)
WOMEN
The women’s team also triumphed at Lassen, 80-56, coming on the back of a 69-61 at Feather River to take them to 12-9 (4-1 GVC). Redwoods jumped out to a 17-6 lead and didn’t look back in establishing the advantage and then expanding it in the third quarter. Nora Talty had 21 points and 10 rebounds, Mayleah Jackson scored 14 with five rebounds, four assists, and two steals, Paityn Erlenbush chipped in 11, and Itzel Torres had nine points, six steals, four rebounds, three assists, and two blocks.
“It was a great team win to close out our first half of conference,” said CR head coach Bree Northern. “We shared the ball well, hit shots and played very unselfishly. I love the way that we are trending, and I am so proud of my team for their hard work day in and day out.”
Talty had 14 of her squad’s first 20 points to get things started, which “helped fuel us and get that spark from us,” said Northern. Mayleah did a great job handling the ball for us and finding her buckets as well. So they really got us off to a good start.” Talty was 9-of-19 from the field and Jackson was 4-of-7.
Redwoods held the lead for the majority of the game and pulled away in the second half, specifically the third quarter in which CR outscored Lassen 24-12. Of the defense, Northern said, “I thought we did a decent job defending them, getting a couple blocks and some steals (17) to get some easy layups, but I thought we struggled a little bit towards the end of the game defending them and let them come back a little bit. But we held them to 56 points and I’ll take that any night. I feel like we did our job.”
Erlenbush got credit from her coach for battling inside and Torres for “filling the stat sheet again, getting it done on both ends of the court, which is really fun to watch and she’s a huge component to our success.”
Asked for the message moving forward to her squad, Northern said she first congratulated them in going 2-0 on a tough weekend and hard trip, relishing the success but “talking about how we’ve got to continue to get better, clean up our game a little bit, find a way to play four quarters and get ready for the second half of conference. We’ve got a target on our backs now, so we’ve got to show up every single day to work our hardest and be ready.”
CR hosts Shasta on Saturday at 1 p.m. in what Northern thought would be a “physical game, definitely a battle. We struggled against them last time we played, they’re physical, tall, and strong, fundamentally sound. It’s going to be a battle, but definitely a fun one, and we’re looking forward to it.”
Ken McCanless can be reached at 707-441-0526.