File photo

It’s shaping up to be a tight race for this year’s Golden Valley Conference championship in men’s basketball and the Corsairs are right in the mix.

The College of the Redwoods men traveled to Feather River on Thursday night, which is traditionally one of the toughest places to play at in conference, and came away with an impressive 96-85 win.

With the victory, the Corsairs improved to 3-1 in conference and they are how in a three-way tie with Shasta and Butte for the GVC lead.

The points tally was the team’s second highest of the season.

“I’m blown away by how well we played offensively to start the game,” CR head coach Ryan Bisio said. “I would argue that Feather River has the biggest home-court advantage on the planet, and to set the tone that we did offensively like that was magnificent.”

The Corsairs scored 55 points in the opening half and carried a 14-point advantage into the break.

“I can’t say enough positive things about our focus and energy tonight,” Bisio added. “We were so locked in. You could feel in the locker room before the game that we were going to play well.”

Six different CR players scored in double digits, led by Brandon Lucas, who finished with 23 points.

Ty Dahlin also continued to impress and added 18 points, while Marcos Rosales finished with 14 points and both Mason Mottashed and Alfonso Medina each had 13 points.

Isai Sow chipped in 10 points, as the Corsairs won for the sixth time in their last seven games and improved to 16-6 overall.

Overall it was a very impressive win for the team at a pivotal time of the season.

“Feather River is a talented, well coached, highly ranked team and we knew they weren’t going down without a fight,” Bisio said. “We had to take a few big punches and overcome some rough calls to see this one through.”

CR made nine 3-pointers.

With the loss, Feather River dropped to 1-3 in conference and 13-8 on the season.

Next up, CR will play at Lassen on Saturday at 1 p.m.

Lassen is 2-2 in the GVC and 9-11 overall.