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The College of the Redwoods women began their most important road trip of the year with a huge win on Thursday night.

CR traveled to Butte and ended the Roadrunners’ eight-game winning streak, while handing them their first conference loss by a score of 72-68 in a game the visitors had to have to keep their championship hopes alive.

Butte is the No. 5 ranked team in NorCal and No 14 in California.

The victory not only avenged an earlier conference loss to Butte, but it moves CR into a two-way tie atop the Golden Valley Conference standings with three games remaining each.

“First off, I just want to shout out my entire team and coaching staff,” CR head coach Bree Northern said. “They absolutely killed it and we came together as one and took care of business. Everyone stepped up tonight and was locked in.”

They had to be in order to knock off the conference leaders, who suffered just their fifth loss of the season and dropped to 6-1 in the GVC and 18-5 overall.

Several players came ready to play for a red-hot CR team, which improved to 6-1 in the GVC and 14-9 overall with a fifth straight win.

Paityn Erlenbush, who has been playing at a high level for the team during their winning streak, helped set the early tone with a big first half, while a pair of former Arcata Tigers also enjoyed big nights.

Freshman Mayleah Jackson scored a team-high 21 points, and also had five assists, four steals and three rebounds for a good all-around game, while sophomore Nora Talty, who has been playing at a consistently high level all season, had a double-double.

Talty finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and an assist, while Erlenbush had 15 points, four rebounds and a block

“Paityn did a great job getting the scoring going for us in the beginning and continued to dominate throughout the entire game,” Northern said. “Mayleah did a great job offensively and was able to get to the line towards the end of the game and helped secure the win with her free throws.”

Jackson finished 9-of-12 at the line.

“Nora continued to impress with her work on both ends of the court,” Northern added.

Addison Wingate and Itzel Torres each also impressed for CR.

Wingate finished with nine points, six rebounds, a steal and an assist, while Torres had five points, five rebounds, four assists, three steals and a block.

Torres also drew a challenging defensive assignment and did not disappoint.

“Itzel Torres had a tough job defending Butte’s best player, but she never gave up and continued to fight throughout the whole game,” the CR coach said.

The CR players had to dig deep late in the game.

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They led early, closing out the first quarter with a 17-10 lead, but the home team would settle in and opened up a four-point advantage at halftime after a big second quarter.

Butte still led at the end of the third quarter (49-48), but the visitors enjoyed the better of exchanges late in the game, outscoring the Roadrunners 24-19 in the fourth to seal the important win.

“I am so proud of my team and how hard they worked,” Northern said. “They never gave up and all of their hard work is paying off. This was a complete team effort.”

Redwoods will conclude a tough road trip with a showdown at Siskiyous on Saturday afternoon.

Siskiyous is third in conference with a record of 5-2 (11-12 overall) and has won three straight games.

Siskiyous plays at Butte next Wednesday.