College of the Reddwoods in the Tregs tourney

College of the Redwoods hosted the Coach Tregs Classic tournament over the weekend and topped Southwestern Oregon Community College 85-81 in the opener as Danny Penza game reports.

Then on Saturday, it was a matchup with Mendocino College and the latter won 100-90 as College of the Redwoods Mens Basketball details:

"Short-handed Corsairs fall in title game at Coach Tregs Corsair Classic

EUREKA – The College of the Redwoods men’s basketball team came back from a 15-point deficit on Friday and nearly overcame another on Saturday, but the Corsairs didn't have enough gas in the tank this time and fell 100-90 to Mendocino in the championship game of the Coach Tregs Corsair Classic.

Tule O'Rourke and Will Ingersoll led CR with 21 points and 20, respectively, and Rishod Abraham chipped in 18 off the bench. Ingersoll was named to the all-tournament team along with teammate DeAndre Winston, who had 10 points.

The loss drops Redwoods to 5-4 overall. It will travel to the Skyline Tournament in San Bruno next week where it will play Bakersfield in the opener on Thursday.
It was a game that demanded long stretches of high-energy play and it wore on the Corsairs late in the game. Redwoods entered the game with just eight players as one was out with an injury and another serving a one-game suspension. Three players fouled out for CR, and by the end of the game just five players were eligible to play.

The Corsairs played press defense for much of the second half and on top of that they had to bang bodies with Mendocino's physical 6-foot-4, 285-pound defensive-end-turned-forward, Jamar King, all game. Normally a strong shooting team, CR had just nine 3-pointers and went 3-for-9 from the line in the second half (12-for-20 overall), while Mendocino had 13 3s and went 19-for-30 from the line.

“I'm proud of the way we played and the effort that we showed. We just ran out of gas,” said CR Head Coach Justin Mora. "(King) is a strong, skilled player with good footwork. We tried to pull him away from the basket as much as we could but he's a good player."

Redwoods kept it close until midway through the second half when it scored just one bucket in a five-minute stretch. King had four blocks, CR committed six turnovers and Mendocino hit three 3s during that crucial run.

Ingersoll, O'Rourke and Loris Hervey sparked a 13-6 run that brought CR to within 86-77 with just under five minutes to play, but Mendocino found ways through the press defense for easy baskets to end the threat.

"It's the little things here and there," Mora said. "I'm happy with where we are as a group. We are a smaller team, so we need to tighten up our defense and get better at rebounding. But we know those things and I'm confident we'll grow in those areas as the season goes along."

Redwoods 48 42 - 90
Mendocino 47 53 - 100
Scoring: O'Rourke 21, Ingersoll 20, Abraham 18, Winson 10, Claus 8, Lamb 5, Hervey 4, Reyes 2
3-pointers: O'Rourke 3, Claus 2, Abraham 2, Ingersoll 2"