File photo – Mason Railsback

Mason Railsback and Makaila Napoleon each had career days on Saturday as the College of the Redwoods basketball teams split a doubleheader at Siskiyous.

Railsback finished with 16 points to lead a furious comeback for the CR men in an 87-80 win, while Napoleon scored 31 points in an 87-76 loss for the CR women.

“Mason was outrageously good,” CR men’s coach Ryan Bisio said of the former Arcata Tiger who is a freshman with the team.

After losing their conference opener at Butte on Thursday, this was close to a must-win game for the defending Golden Valley champions, but they started slowly and trailed 35-17 in the first half.

“In the first 10 minutes I’m not sure any team has played as well as Siskiyous did,” said Bisio, who added “our belief and perseverance was storybook.

“I couldn’t be happier and prouder of this group.”

Five CR players finished in double digits in scoring, including Brandon Lucas and Donald Willis with 14 points each, as well as Zac Claus with 12 and Jon Nchekwube with 10.

The Corsairs, who were missing Drew Gillette for the game, improved to 1-1 in conference and 11-5 overall.

Napoleon, a former Eureka Logger who joined the Corsairs this season after a spell at Oregon Tech, had her best day yet offensively for the CR women’s team.

Ashley Quigley also had a good day in the loss and finished with 16 points.

With the loss, the CR women dropped to 0-2 in conference and 11-8 overall.

Both CR teams return home to play Lassen on Wednesday.