Cody Whitmer joined some pretty elite company on Saturday, as the College of the Redwoods men’s basketball team closed out tournament play in Modesto with a victory over Alameda.

The CR men made it two straight wins in tournament play with an 86-63 victory, which also avenged a defeat to a Cougars team that knocked CR out of the playoffs last season.

Marcos Rosales led CR with 27 points in the win, while Whitmer capped three big days in tournament action with 20 points.

Whitmer, a former McKinleyville Panther, was also named to the all-tournament team.

And he joins some pretty elite company from an historic tournament that has a long and storied history and is in its 87th year of existence.

Jackie Robinson was named to the Modesto all-tournament team in its first year back in 1939.

“This tournament is historic, competitive and extremely well run, and we’re happy to leave with two wins,” CR head coach Justin Claus said.

It was an up-and-down opening half for the CR men, who started slow but grew into the game and built a sizable advantage.

However, much as they have in many games this year, the CR men faded late in the first half.

“Like several games this season, we had some mental lapses over the final five minutes of the half,” said Claus, whose team led by three at the interval.

The players, however, rediscovered their groove after the break.

“Similar to yesterday, I was really proud of our response in the second half,” the CR coach added. “We played a complete 20 minutes.

“Defensively, we were able to throw multiple coverages at Alameda and stay focused and effective in each of them. Offensively, we did a great job of connecting actions and forcing them to guard multiple actions on every possession.

“When we’re moving and screening off the ball the way we were today, we can be very difficult to guard, and we took another step forward in our commitment to that.”

It was a balanced team performance with 10 players scoring in the win.

That, according to Claus, “speaks to how connected we were.”

With the win, CR improved to 9-6.

Next up, Redwoods will travel for the Santa Rosa tournament, which tips off on Friday.

College of the Redwoods Athletics