By Ray Hamill — The College of the Redwoods men’s and women’s basketball teams will return to action when they host Shasta College in their conference openers on Saturday.

The men, who are two-time defending Golden Valley Conference champions, play at 1 p.m., followed by the CR and Shasta women at 3.

And both CR teams will be looking to get conference play off to a winning start against a pair of Shasta teams that have struggled this season in terms of wins and losses.

The Redwoods men are 16-2 on the season and ranked No. 12 in the state, their highest ever ranking, while the Shasta men will tip off conference with a record of 4-14, the second worst among the six GVC teams.

The CR women, meanwhile, are 5-12, while the Shasta women are 7-10.

Despite his team’s superior record, however, CR men’s head coach Ryan Bisio is not taking the Knights lightly and is expecting a hard-nosed battle.

“They bring physicality and they bring a real dogged approach to playing the game,” Bisio said. “They’re going to be prepared and they’re going to be well-coached, and they’re not going to be intimidated.”

The Corsairs are playing for a piece of GVC history this year as they bid to become not only the first-ever CR team to win a third consecutive conference title, but the first GVC team to do so in at least three decades.

“The conference is not really built to have someone repeat because it’s just so hard to win a single game with all the travel,” the coach said.

After a busy start to the season that saw them play 11 games in just 23 days — and all but three of them on the road — the Corsairs have not played since Dec. 17.

Bisio gave the players 10 days off over Christmas to “recharge their batteries,” and it appears to have worked.

“Since we met back up on Dec. 28, they seem recharged and refocused,” he said. “The honest truth is the coaches needed a break too. We’re all in this together.”

The team also is 100 percent healthy heading into the business end of the season.

Bisio also has invited several local high school teams to attend Saturday’s game, with many of them free on Saturday.

The Knights feature a former H-DNL player, T-Ryan Stumpf of McKinleyville.

The former Panther has appeared in 14 games off the bench for the team and is averaging 3.1 points a game.

The CR women, meanwhile, will be looking to get back on track against a Knights team that has not won a game in more than a month and is riding a five-game losing streak.

The CR women most recently competed at the San Jose City tournament last week, going 1-2 with a victory over Porterville and losses to both Pasadena City and Siskiyous.

Both of Saturday’s games will be streamed live for a small fee for fans who are unable to make the game.

The men’s game can be accessed here, while the women’s game is available here.