Big game: College of the Redwoods versus Santa Rosa JC

From the College of the Redwoods Facebook site:

The College of the Redwoods men’s basketball team will face its toughest challenge of the season on Saturday as the Corsairs return from Christmas break to host Santa Rosa at 7:30 p.m. and, at the same time, go for their third consecutive win.

The Corsairs (10-5), who open Golden Valley Conference play on Wednesday at home against Feather River, are off to their best start under third-year head coach Justin Mora, and CR will look to keep that momentum rolling against a prestigious Santa Rosa (6-6) team.

“They’re the best team we’ve played all year,” Mora said of the Bear Cubs. “No disrespect to any of the other teams on our schedule, but Santa Rosa is a top-notch program in our state and they’ve probably played one of, if not, the toughest schedules in our state. We’re trying to treat it like any other game, but this is big game in our season.”

Although the Corsairs have the best winning percentage in the GVC heading into conference play next week, according to the pre-conference polls, Redwoods is still on the outside looking in to contest for a league title.

However, a win on Saturday against Santa Rosa could change all that.

“Beating a team like this could open a lot of avenues for our team and for our players down the road,” Mora said. “It would be huge for our program and our future.”

Redwoods currently has four players averaging double-digit scoring with James Slade, Jon Losa and Johnny Shelton all averaging 14 points per game, while Mitchell Hash is averaging 11.

“It’s a special group,” Mora said. “It seems like they’ve been playing together for years. We have a nice mixture of sophomores and freshmen and they’re just starting to gel. We were playing some of our best basketball of the year before the break so hopefully we can keep it going.”

According to Mora, who saw the Bear Cubs play in their own tournament two weeks ago, Santa Rosa likes to shoot the 3.

“They went 20-for-37 from 3, in one game against Shasta in their tournament opener,” Mora said of Santa Rosa’s 101-62 win over Shasta. “That’s one thing they like to do.”

Although Santa Rosa has six losses on the season, three of them are against City College of San Francisco and one is against Fresno.

Both are top-five ranked teams in California.

“It would be a heck of a way to go into league,” Mora said of a potential win on Saturday. “It’s a non-conference game but it’s huge for our season.”

Lorrie Reyes/Times Standard offer more.