File photo by Steve Watson/The Artful Photographist – Cody Whitmer

Cody Whitmer had a career night on Friday as the College of the Redwoods men’s basketball team bounced back from a tournament opening loss in Modesto with a big win over Fresno City.

Whitmer “was incredible tonight,” according to CR head coach Justin Claus, on his way to a game-high 36 points, as CR won 95-79.

The former McKinleyville Panther made 10 3-pointers.

CR started the game strong and “came out with great focus and urgency,” Claus said, on the way to building a solid lead.

But Fresno would settle into the game and enjoyed the better of exchanges in the final five minutes of the opening half, going on a 15-2 run to take take the lead and carry some momentum into the break.

“At halftime we challenged our guys to stay focused and engaged for 20 full minutes and to respond to runs with more urgency and purpose,” Claus said. “I believe we did that tonight in the best way we have all season.

“We competed at a really high level for the entire second half.”

And the players did so on both offense and defense.

“We executed well on both ends of the floor and were able to throw different defensive looks at Fresno. Each one worked when we needed it to,” Claus said. “Offensively, I thought we executed as well as we have all season and consistently got to the actions we wanted.”

In addition to Whitmer’s big night, CR’s Marcos Rosales had another strong game and finished with 24 points, while Alfonso Medina helped set the early tone and responded well after a quiet game in a 90-75 loss to Yuba in CR’s tournament opener on Thursday.

“He was ultra aggressive, got the paint, finished at the rim and made great kick-out reads to our shooters,” Claus said of the former Fortuna Husky. “He was the engine for us in the first half and also did a great job defensively guarding a very good scorer from Fresno.”

On Saturday, Redwoods will get a consolation game rematch with Alameda, a team coached by NBA legend Gary Payton and a school that knocked CR out of the playoffs last season.

“As you’d expect, they play great defense,” Claus said. “They’ll test our ability to handle pressure and physicality for 40 minutes.”

Game time is set for noon.