File photo – Kyla Albee

The College of the Redwood women’s basketball team is finding its groove at an opportune time.

On Wednesday night, the Corsairs held on late to beat Siskiyous 69-65 at CR and took over sole possession of second place in the Golden Valley Conference standings.

The Corsairs, who have now won six of their last games, improved to 2-1 in conference and only Butte (3-0) has a better record in the GVC.

“We came out and we were connecting, and the girls were playing really aggressively offensively and our shots were falling,” head coach Jain Tuey. “I feel like the girls are getting to the point where they’re connecting on the court.”

In what was a back-and-forth matchup, the CR women led by 11 after the opening quarter before the visitors narrowed the gap to four at halftime.

The Corsairs grabbed the momentum back in the third quarter and widened the advantage to 10 heading into the final quarter, and that proved to be too big a gap for Siskiyous to close.

Lily Hoban led a balanced offense for the Corsairs and has lifted the level of her game in recent weeks, finishing with a team-high 15 points in the win.

“She just worked her butt off the entire game,” Tuey said of the sophomore forward from Sonoma. “She had some really good moves and she just continues to work offensively and defensively for the entirety of the game.

“She’s really one of the hardest workers that I’ve coached.”

Ronee Norwood also had a good night in the win and finished with 12 points, including a pair of 3-pointers, while Kyla Albee added 11 points.

Ellie Pesch also was instrumental in the win and finished with nine points, all from downtown, while Olivia Railsback added eight points and Moriah Bowles chipped in six points on a pair of 3s.

File photo

Pesch hit all three of her 3-pointers in the third quarter to give her team a lift at a pivotal time of the game, while Bowles hit a big 3 right after Siskiyous had to grab the momentum right back.

Alia Prentiss and Lily Shelton each added four points to round out the team scoring.

“A lot of them are making big plays at big moments,” Tuey said.

It’s been a case of a different player stepping up for the team almost every different game.

“It depends on what team we’re playing, but it really could be any one of them on any night,” the coach added.

The Corsairs, who are now 8-12 overall, will close out the first half of conference play at Shasta on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m., before a 10-day break in action.