CR’s men’s basketball team took a big step forward Friday afternoon, bouncing back from a 90-75 Thursday loss to Yuba at the Modesto Junior College Tournament with a 95-79 win over Fresno City College. This sets Redwoods up to play a team in Alameda, which is coached by former NBA legend Gary Payton, who ended CR’s season last year in the playoffs, with a Saturday noon tip.
Yuba was a competitive game with several lead changes throughout, but the last six minutes got away from Redwoods, with them making mistakes and Yuba capitalizing, according to CR head coach Justin Claus. The 49ers were in the 98th percentile of JC’s nationally in running possessions through the post, utilizing their bigs more than any team in the nation.
Claus said, “Our guys spent the week preparing for a detailed and extensive defensive game plan to counter their set and post actions. I thought our execution in that area was tremendous. Luka Radovanovic was sensational in his defensive engagement, and from memory, I don’t believe Yuba scored more than two or three field goals in the post.”
However, Yuba shifted their approach to driving to score, and Redwoods lost its edge defensively and gave up some easy buckets late. Marcos Rosales paced the team with 19 points, Cody Whitmer had 15, Radovanovic finished with 13, and Nate Sweet chipped in 10.
Marcos Rosales lines one up against Mendocino earlier this year. He had 43 points in two games Thursday and Friday. (Ken McCanless/The Times-Standard)
“We had a lot of different defensive coverages and wanted to make them think and deal with a lot of different things, knowing that if we gave them a simple coverage, they were going to be pretty experienced and know how to beat it. We did, which was great, but in the second half, they stopped posting up and let their guards have space to drive. We struggled to keep them in front of us and let simple plays beat us down the stretch,” he said.
Claus said there were four or five threes in the closing minutes that were “daggers,” enabled by Redwoods’ overreaction to the drive.
Against Fresno City, the team had a great stretch in the first half and went on a run, defensively executing well and “taking a step forward in our engagement,” according to Claus. However, there was a five-minute lapse, which has been a troublesome tendency for CR, who gave up a 15-2 run from the Rams and allowed them to lead at half.
“We’ve had these periods where we give away runs that change the entire layout of the game,” said the coach. “At halftime, all we could focus on was talking about how we couldn’t have that extent of a lapse in a half and expect to win good basketball games. Our guys answered the call in the second half, we came out with more energy and engagement than we’ve had in awhile, great communication, clarity on what we were trying to do. When Fresno made their run, our response to it was as good as it’s been all year. We were focused, and when those two or three minutes came, we reponded like winning basketball teams do, showing a lot of growth.”
Claus said it was nice to get to 95 again, Whitmer notching 10 threes en route to 36 points, Rosales with 24, Alfonso Medina “starting hot” and getting to the paint early with his 14.
“But defensively, he continued, “it was good to guard really, really good, athletic individuals who like to play one-on-one. We had to take a step forward with that and we did.” Claus said Whitmer was especially efficient on his attempts from deep.
If CR is able to best Alameda, they will be consolation champions in a tournament with a very tough bracket, with multiple potential playoff teams in the north present.
_\-Ken McCanless can be reached at 707-441-0526._