College of the Redwoods Athletics

The College of the Redwoods men’s basketball team split a pair of games on the road over the weekend.

Redwoods bounced back from a lopsided loss at San Francisco the previous weekend with an 81-48 win over Hartnell on Saturday, before falling 79-63 against Cabrillo the following day.

With the split, Redwoods is now 3-2 on the season.

Marcos Rosales continued his impressive start to the new season with a game-high 23 points against Hartnell, while former McKinleyville Panther and 2023 Humboldt Sports Player of the Year Cody Whitmer added 19 points.

“It was uplifting to have every player contribute meaningfully in a game where we finally felt like ourselves again,” CR head coach Justin Claus. “We still made plenty of mistake that we need to keep cleaning up, but we also put together stretches on both sides of the ball that were executed at a high level.

“That’s something we can build confidence from moving forward.”

All 12 players on the roster played in both halves, with nine scoring.

Nate Sweet finished with 10 points in the win, while Alfonso Medina and Luka Radovanovic each had eight points.

Radovanovic also had a team-best 10 rebounds.

In Sunday’s game, Cabrillo’s pressure defense caused the CR players problems.

“We again faced pressure that was a bit too overwhelming,” Claus said. “Even though we took a small step forward in our ball security compared to the SF City game, their pressure still managed to knock us out of our rhythms and offensive patterns.”

A slow start saw the CR players score just 12 points in the opening 13 minutes of the game and they never fully recovered.

“Cabrillo also controlled the terrain the game was played on — paced energy and physicality — and we struggled to dictate any of those areas,” Claus said. 

Rosales led the team in scoring again with 16 points, while Medina added 15 points and Kaden Erlenbush chipped in 12 points.

“While we did improve in some ways in this type of game, it’s clear we still have a lot of work to do,” Claus added.

Next up, Redwoods travels for the Ed Boyle Invitational tournament at Mendocino College, opening against Sacramento City on Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m.