File photo – CR’s Kai Purcell

Five days after an exciting victory over Butte in their conference opener, the College of the Redwoods men surprisingly lost at Lassen in men’s basketball on Thursday night, falling 74-71.

The CR women were also in action and won comfortably 70-31.

Both Redwoods teams are now 1-1 in the Golden Valley Conference.

Reigning conference MVP Trey Neff scored 22 points for the CR men, who are playing for a fourth straight conference title this season.

Kai Purcell added 14 points and Ty Neff finished with 11 points.

“My goodness, this one hurts,” CR head coach Ryan Bisio said. “We were aware going about how difficult it is to play up here, and tonight really proved that.

“We just could not find our stride consistently on either end of the floor.”

Redwoods remained hot from downtown and had 12 3-pointers.

However, that wasn’t enough to overcome a clutch Lassen side that rallied in the second half for the win.

“Lassen made some big shots down the stretch and made some very decisive adjustments at halftime,” Bisio said. “They deserve a lot of praise for how they played tonight.”

The CR men led 32-28 at halftime.

“Midway through the second half we just randomly took our hands off the steering wheel,” Bisio added. “Our offensive malaise during that stretch put our defense in a compromising position, which it never recovered from.”

The CR men are now fourth in the conference standings, trailing Siskiyous (2-0), Feather River (1-0) and Lassen (2-1).

Butte remains winless in conference at 0-2 after losing at Siskiyous 76-74 on Wednesday.

The Corsairs, who have dropped four of their last six games, will try to get back to winning ways at Feather River on Saturday at 1 p.m.

“We still have enough time left this season to find a broader and deeper individual and collective dependability,” Bisio said. “Whether it be energy, effort, focus or execution, there’s still time to unlock a higher consistency.”

The CR men are now 11-9 on the season.

Feather River is 6-13.

The CR women, meanwhile, moved into a tie for second in the GVC standings with their 39-point win.

“We came out and took care of business today,” head coach Jain Tuey. “We were able to get everyone balanced minutes and work on some different aspects of our game that we’ll need for the games coming up next week.”

The in-form Lily Hoban scored a game-high 16 points in the win, as the CR women quickly opened up a 27-4 lead after the opening quarter.

Ellie Pesch added 15 points in the win, while Moriah Bowles finished with nine points and Ronee Norwood chipped in seven points.

The CR women are now 7-12 overall.