"Woods look to put pieces together before league play

A preseason defined by large wins and narrow losses comes to a close this week for the College of the Redwoods womens basketball team as it will wrap its non-conference schedule over the next few days with a stretch of games at the San Jose City College Tournament, beginning with a clash against Chabot College tonight at 5 p.m.

Redwoods (4-6), as may be expected with any team featuring just three sophomores and seven freshman, has endured more than a few close losses to start its season.

Four of Redwoods’ six losses have come by less than 10 points and none have come by more than 16 points, a trend which head coach Jain Tuey attributes to a lack of experience in tight situations — a condition which is only remedied by time.

“I feel like we are finally playing together and on the same page,” Tuey said. “Whether its maintaining a lead or fighting back from a deficit, we’ve had trouble at times keeping the right mentality in those situations. We’re teetering on the edge of being a great team, our biggest challenge right now is just keeping our confidence throughout games and that will come as we continue to play together.”

Two freshman in particular have emerged as productive players in 2018 — Breesia Northern and Darienne Kartes.

Northern, a former Arcata Tiger, was a day one starter for Redwoods and currently averages the second most points per game (12.1) on the team.

Northern, standing at 5-foot-4, is typically one of the shorter players on the court. That hasn’t stopped her from maintaining her sharp-shooting ways at the junior college level.

“I knew coming into the season that that game would be faster and people would be generally bigger and stronger,” Northern said. “In high school I had a lot more time to get a shot off, but at this level the game moves a lot quicker. I’ve had to adjust by just playing that much harder and getting around the court as quick as I can.”

On the other end of the height spectrum is Redwoods’ 6-footer Kartes, who has used every bit of her size to control the paint — where the former Fortuna Huskie leads the Golden Valley Conference in blocks per game with just over three (3.3) swats a night.

Kartes’ shot-blocking has helped Redwoods to a No. 1 ranking in the entirety of the California Community College Athletic Association in blocked shots per game (5.5).

Kartes is also Redwoods’ third-leading scorer with an 11.9 points per game average, and also nearly averages a double-double with 8.4 rebounds per game. Her rebounding so far this season has been good enough to put her fifth in the GVC in that category.

Jayden Johnson, a freshman and former St. Bernard’s Crusader, has been an occasional starter for Redwoods in 2018 and leads the team with 2.7 3-pointers per game and is fourth on the team in scoring, averaging just under 10 (9.9) points per game. Her 3-point shooting, along with Northern and sophomore Taylor Murray, has put Redwoods near the top in the CCCAA (4th) in respect to made 3-pointers per game (9.7).

Freshman may occupy the second, third and fourth spots in terms of scoring for Redwoods’ this season, but sophomore Bobbie Purify leads the team with 12.9 points a game and according to Tuey has been instrumental in the defensive play of Redwoods this season.

“Bobbie is terrific with her help defense,” Tuey said. “She’s just so active on the court overall.”

Tonight’s game against Chabot (9-4) will be the first of potentially three games this week for Redwoods as it looks to iron out a few wrinkles before opening up conference play on Jan. 5 at home against Shasta.