The 'Woods finally met their match.
The College of the Redwoods men's and women's basketball teams played the part of road underdogs Saturday night, each looking to upset No. 1 seeds in the championship round of the CCCAA NorCal Regional tournament. Both clubs fell one game short of reaching the Elite Eight state finals at West Hills College-Lemoore.
Men's game: CCSF 108 Redwoods 64
No. 1 City College of San Francisco (30-0), the consensus No. 1 team not only in the NorCal region but in the entire state, jumped out to a 16-0 lead early in the first half against No. 8 Redwoods and never looked back.
The Rams led 31-3 midway through the first half and 53-22 at halftime. The Rams pressured Redwoods the length of the floor for much of the first half and forced 11 turnovers before halftime according to the CCSF broadcast team.
On offense Redwoods (22-6), which entered the game as the second-best 3-point shooting team in the state, elected to shoot as many threes as possible and waste no time getting back on defense.
The 'Woods found open look after open look during the course of the season en route to the program's first outright Golden Valley Conference title since 2007.
Such was not the case Saturday night.
CCSF, led by Miles Norris and a starting five all with Division 1 programs expecting their arrival in the near future, got to the rim at will, found open shots nearly every time down the floor and suffocated Redwoods defensively in the decisive win.
Redwoods made eight 3-pointers in the game, three less than its season average.
"I thought they showed us the ultimate sign of respect tonight in how they prepared for us and how aggressive and focused they were from the start. They were ready for us," Redwoods head coach Ryan Bisio said. "Their aggression was a complete shock to our system. When we finally settled down, it was too late. We didn't execute the way we hoped, but you have to give them all the credit."
Thomas Nelson led the 'Woods with 25 points while Zac Claus added 12 and Isaac Puzz, 9.
"This Redwoods team is arguably the best in program history, and it doesn't have a thing to do with wins or losses or reaching the Sweet 16," Bisio said. "It's because of the kind of people they are and how they go about honoring the game we all love."
Women's game: Delta 78 Redwoods 46
No. 1 San Joaquin Delta College (29-1) outscored No. 8 Redwoods (21-6) 17-6 in the first quarter, and appeared to be on its way to a blowout win.
But the 'Woods stood tall in the second frame, outscoring Delta 19-12 before heading into the break down 29-25.
"I felt like we settled in in the second quarter and were able to adjust to a very high level of play," Redwoods head coach Jain Tuey said. "We were aggressive and we saw the court well, I thought we did a great job attacking them."
There would be no miracle in the second half for Redwoods as the Corsairs were unable to repeat their second quarter performance before succumbing to Delta team simply with more experience at the state level.
"(Delta) came out fired up in the second half and brought it to us," Tuey said. "This is a very tough level to play at.
"I plan to give us a much tougher preseason schedule next season," the coach said. "There's really no way to prepare for games like this unless you just go out and play them."
Dennise Horton led Redwoods with 11 points in the loss while Ashley Quigley added 10 and Darienne Kartes, 9.