File photo – Rachel Valdez

The College of the Redwoods women’s basketball team fell to Golden Valley Conference champs Butte on Saturday, losing 63-48 and seeing any outside shot at sharing the conference title fade.

The high-flying Roadrunners, who improved to 9-0 in the GVC with the win, came into the game having already won at least a share of the conference, and the Corsairs were their closest challengers with two losses.

The loss drops the CR women to 5-3 in the GVC and 16-9 overall.

Former Eureka Logger Bella Vigil will take home a conference championship medal in her first season with the Roadrunners and has given a physical Butte team a strong defensive presence all season.

A busy week and an emotional win over Shasta on Wednesday took its toll on the Corsairs, who were playing once again without standout sophomore Makaila Napoleon.

“A lot of elements played into it,” said head coach Jain Tuey, who admitted her team was exhausted on Thursday after Wednesdays big comeback win. “But they’re a really good team, and we kind of came out flat, and their physicality was difficult for us.”

The consistent Rachel Valdez continued to impress in the loss and finished with a team-high 17 points, while Ashley Quigley added 12 points.

Submitted photo – Bella Vigil in action for Butte at CR on Saturday. The former Logger has won a conference medal in her freshman campaign with the Roadrunners.

Josie Peterson also had a good game as the Corsairs tried to match up with a Butte team that has been out-rebounding opponents by 10 a game.

“Josie Peterson played really hard and physical,” Tuey said. “We had a talk this week about her being more physical and I thought she did that.”

Next up, the Corsairs will travel for games at Shasta and Lassen next week to close out the regular season.