File photo – Ryan Bisio

By Ray Hamill — The Corsairs may have fallen short in their bid for a record fourth straight conference championship in men’s basketball this year, but rest assured the powerhouse program is alive and well.

On Saturday night, a memorable playoff run ended in a 70-55 loss at College of the Sequoias, a game which head coach Ryan Bisio missed after testing positive for COVID the morning of the game.

The Corsairs pushed the No. 3 seeds in NorCal for most of the night, before the game got away from them late.

The loss came after back-to-back road wins over higher seeds qualified the Corsairs for the state Sweet 16 for the third time in four seasons under Bisio.

But that’s what we’ve come to expect from Bisio, a North Coast native who was named community college state coach of the year 12 months ago.

And after Saturday’s loss, the coach paid tribute to his players.

“I couldn’t be more proud of the fight we showed during this playoff run,” he said. “2,400 miles traveled in 12 days, and our guys kept getting better and better. It shows how connected they were and how much purpose they played with.”

Bisio also expressed his disappointment at missing one of the biggest games of his career.

“A bizarre and shocking occurrence that will haunt me the rest of my life,” he said. “Not shocking in that I was proven capable of contracting COVID, but that I got it for the first time the morning of the biggest game I’ve ever coached in.”

However, in his absence associate head coach Justin Claus and his staff did a good job as the players rallied from an early double-digit defect to tie the game midway through the second half before the late letdown.

“Our coaches, led by Justin Claus, did a truly phenomenal job in not only preparing our players mentally, but calling a very good game from the sideline,” Bisio said, “Our guys competed in the way our community has come to rely upon and we nearly punched our ticket to the final eight.”

The players themselves will leave a lasting legacy with the program.

Sophomores Trey Neff, Ty Neff, Jett Cheong, Kai Purcell and Lucq Anderson are the second all-time winningest players in program history with 45 wins in their two seasons playing for the Corsairs.

Only Jon Nchekwube, Aidan Atkins-Salazar and Niko Zambas have combined for more wins (47).