CORSAIRS ADVANCE TO CHAMPIONSHIP
College of the Redwoods downs Chabot, sets up title game vs. Sequoias
College of the Redwoods men's basketball stayed alive Saturday with an 86-78 win over Chabot College to move into the CCCAA Northern California regional final against a familiar opponent, No. 3 seed College of the Sequoias.
College of the Sequoias sent home the Corsairs the past two years in CCCAA playoffs and will look to do it once again on Saturday when they host College of the Redwoods for the two teams' third playoff meeting in three years.
The No. 22 seed Corsairs became the lowest seed to reach the CCCAA state regional final in 21 years with the win over Chabot, the first team since the No. 28 seed Cabrillo College reached the regional final in 2003.
Sophomore Trey Neff had another signature performance, dropping 32 points with eight rebounds with fellow sophomore Jett Cheong adding 17 points and seven assists working as the main prongs of the Corsair offense. CR led 44-35 at halftime and held on to the lead from there. Chabot cut it to within six points with under eight minutes to play but Neff converted an and-one to push the lead right back to nine.
Chabot answered with a made three but a second chance score by sophomore Mason Railsback halted the Gladiator momentum. Neff then again found positioning in the post and showed off his back-to-the-basket game for an easy two.
Chabot shot themselves in the foot with their inability to shoot from the free throw line, 16-30 in the game and going 1-4 as the Corsairs made their late-game push.
CR pushed the lead to doubledigits when Cheong found Neff with a bounce pass as he cut towards the hoop, converting another and-one, celebrating with head coach Ryan Bisio in a moment of jubilance before returning to the line and hitting the free throw to make the game 68-56.
Neff then hit a dagger three to put the Corsairs up 15 with 3:30 to go as Chabot had no answer for Neff in the second half, not even when they were on offense,
as Neff drew a charge to force a turnover on the ensuing Chabot possession.
Once the game was out of reach, Chabot finished on a hot streak to get the final score to within eight, but after going 3-7 on the road in the regular season, the Corsairs' have won consecutive road games to open the CCCAA playoffs but they'll need another to unseat College of the Sequoias.
CR has now reached the state regional finals for a third time since 2020, with only three teams doing it in all four years, with Sequoias being one of them, alongside San Francisco and San Diego City. The Corsairs are also the second team in the modern era of the Golden Valley Conference to reach back-toback regional finals appearances, this comes in a season where College of the Redwoods finished in second place in the conference.
CR hasn't played Sequoias yet this season, but in the regional final last year they defeated the Corsairs 58-49, in a game where the Corsairs shot only 30.6% from the field. In 2021-22 the Corsairs fell in the second round to Sequoias 88-64, where CR shot just 32.9% in the loss.
This year's 19-11 Corsairs team hopes to have a better fate than the previous CR teams to fall to the Giants, but it won't be easy. Sequoias come into Saturday's game winners of eight in a row and a record of 24-5 overall.
College of the Redwoods will travel more than eight hours south to Visalia for the regional final that tips off at 7 p.m. on Saturday with CR to get back Sequoias for causing the recent playoff heartbreaks.