The College of the Redwoods men’s basketball team has advanced to the championship game at the Kris Kringle tournament at Santa Rosa and will face off against the host school on Saturday night.

The CR men defeated Cuesta 81-64 in their tournament opener on Friday night.

Also in action on Friday, the CR women fell 74-44 to Cosumnes River in a non-tournament game.

The men’s team got off to a fast start, jumping out a 22-4 lead and carrying a 38-23 advantage into halftime.

“Cuesta made an adjustment defensively and began switching our off-ball actions, and for a stretch we struggled to mentally shift gears,” CR head coach Justin Claus said. “That’s not a new way teams guard us, but we weren’t as sharp as we need to be during that portion of the first half.”

Redwoods still held a sizable 15-point lead at halftime and was able to keep Cuesta at bay throughout the second half.

“The game never felt completely comfortable, but our guys did a good job of answering their runs with runs of our own,” Claus said.

Marcos Rosales paced the CR offense and scored a team-high 22 points, while Kaden Erlenbush added 16 points.

Nate Sweet also impressed on his way to 15 points, and the CR players combined for 28 assists.

With the win, Redwoods improved to 10-6.

Claus is expecting a battle in Saturday’s championship game against a Santa Rosa team that is “incredibly talented” and is ranked No. 3 in the state.

“We’re excited for another opportunity to compete against one of the top teams in California,” he said.

The CR women, meanwhile, dropped to 6-7 with their loss to Cosumnes River.

Mia Hoogendoorn scored a team-high 12 points in the loss and also had 10 rebounds for a double-double, while Nora Talty had nine boards.

Cayenne Pruter added seven rebounds and Paityn Erlenbush scored nine points.

Next up, the CR women will host Southwestern Oregon on Dec. 29.

College of the Redwoods Athletics