CR teams hit the road for opening round matchups
Both College of the Redwoods basketball teams will begin their California Community College Athletics Association playoff journeys on the road Wednesday night. The Corsair women's team was awarded with the 21st seed after an 11-14 season, now CR will face Sierra College at William Jessup University at 7:00 p.m.
The Corsairs men's team will face Merced College in the opening round after receiving the 22nd seed for a 17-11 season, that tip-off is also set for 7 p.m. and will be played in Merced. Both CR teams finished second in the Golden Valley Conference, but the women's team shared second
place with the College of the Siskiyous.
Corsairs women to face Sierra
The women's team enters the playoffs winners of two in a row to close GVC play and they'll see an opponent that got the better of them earlier this season. Sierra beat the Corsairs 81-58 back in November, in game three of the Corsairs' five-game losing streak to open the season.
Corsairs head coach Jain Tuey sees a different Corsairs women's team today than she did in the two teams' first meeting.
“We've gotten more comfortable as a team. The first time we played them we just brought
Molly Slayton in from volleyball, Olivia (Railsback) from volleyball and Alia (Prentiss) from soccer, so we hadn't really had time as a whole team yet,” Tuey said of the first matchup against Sierra. “We'll be a different team than we were when we played them the first time.”
While the Corsairs were finding themselves as a unit in the first meeting, Sierra was missing two double-digit scorers, with sophomores LeAundra Walker-Brown and Julieanne Cotterill missing the game against CR. The duo has combined for 20.9 points per game as the third and fourth options for the Wolverines.
The game against Sierra was far from a shining performance from the Corsairs' this season,
turning the ball over 34 times and shooting 32% from the field while going 6-19 from the freethrow line.
Tuey says that the Corsairs will try to pack the paint as much as they can to try to limit Sierra's second-chance scoring, potentially looking at running a zone defense to help grab defensive rebounds.
“We're going to try to just take them out of that aspect of their game and if they try to beat us from the three-point line, then we could make some adjustments there if need be,” Tuey said. “Rebounding is going to be a huge factor in this game. We've got to be physical, we've got to be prepared and limit them to one shot.”
The Corsairs' last encounter provides an opportunity for the Corsairs to play in a gym that's not foreign to them, or be surprised by Sierra's physicality having already seen it once before.
“I'm happy we're facing an opponent that we've already seen,” Tuey said. “I think it will allow the girls to relax a little bit more too. There's obviously a lot of hype and excitement of being in a playoff game. We've got five freshmen and our sophomores didn't make playoffs last year so it's going to be a new environment.”
Corsairs men to battle Merced College
In the men's playoffs, the Corsairs haven't played Merced College this season but they did see them last year when CR got a 81-62 win. But this year's Merced squad is a different unit, having gone 21-7 so far this season.
“This Merced team is clearly a different team than any team they've had.” Corsairs men's head coach Ryan Bisio said.
A constant for Merced has been sophomore guard Tyreon Payne. Payne has averaged over 21 points per game while shooting 51% from the field this season.
“Payne who, to me, looks like a low-mid level Division I guard, he looks like a guy you'd see in the NCAA tournament,” Bisio said. “He's so good, he looks like a state player of the year caliber talent.”
Payne isn't the only lethal guard on Merced, with sophomore guard Yasir Rowell averaging 23.2 points per game including a 51-point onslaught of West Hills Coalinga last Wednesday in a Merced win.
“Rowell and Payne, those two guards account for two-thirds of their shots on the year. This is a real highusage combination they have,” Bisio said of Merced's backcourt. “There's certain things we'll have to concede and one of those things is three-point jump shots. These guys are so quick, so explosive we're going to have to invest in our transition defense and force them to play five-on-five.”
The Corsairs don't lack firepower of their own, with five players averaging double-figure scoring, including sophomore Trey Neff who finished second in the GVC in scoring and as a team CR has made 39 more threes than any other team in the state, hitting 341 so far this year.
“I do feel a certain confidence level in our guys knowing that it's not some boogey-man or some unfamiliar abstract team. No, we've seen a few of these guys, we've played them before and historically we've done well,” Bisio said. “That allows our guys to kind of settle into the type of confidence that we're going to need to win a road playoff game.”
The Corsairs come into this playoff game with their chests' held high, winning six of their last seven, while scoring 90+ in each of the wins. They're just 7-11 away from their home gym this season but Bisio feels like there's no time like the present to change that narrative.
“We all feel like we're playing our best basketball. Why not go play a big playoff game right now?” Bisio questioned. “We're going to have to play really, really well but so would any team that wants to advance in this tournament.”