BUTTE VALLEY >> The Butte College men’s basketball team finished its regular season 14-13 and 6-4 in Golden Valley Conference play, earning the No. 17 seed in the California Community College Athletic Association’s NorCal Regional Tournament.

The Roadrunners defeated the No. 16 seed Ohlone 72-66 Wednesday in Fremont, and now face off against No. 1 seed City College of San Francisco (25-3) at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in San Francisco.

Ozzy Meadows led the Butte offense with 18 points, Marvin Lee had 15 points, and Chico High alumnus Marvelous Owens had 10 points and a steal to seal the Roadrunners’ victory with 23 seconds left. Isaac Wood had 10 point and six rebounds, and Pleasant Valley alumnus Anthony Montoya had nine points and six assists.

Before the game it was announced that four Butte College players received All-Golden Valley Conference honors. Rolontae Knowles and Meadows received All-GVC First Team honors, Wood was named All-GVC Honorable Mention and Owens was named to the All-Defensive Team.

Butte College head coach Jack Martin commented Thursday on all four players, saying that Wood could easily have been named All-GVC First Team as well. He praised the growth of Knowles since he arrived “raw” at Butte from the Bahamas.

Knowles led the Roadrunners in scoring for a second straight season, averaging 16.9 points per game in addition to 6.9 rebounds per game.

“His impact on winning is big time,” Martin said of Knowles. “He’s grown from a weapon off the bench (last season) to being our leader and our guy that gets buckets. He’s got a great smile and a great energy to him. He’s got a great way of making timely buckets.”

Martin said that he was proud of his two captains Meadows and Wood. Meadows averaged 13.8 points per game and 7.2 rebounds per game, and Martin said he could have joined Owens on the All-GVC Defensive Team.

Meadows had an injury late last season but switched off with Owens guarding the opposing team’s strongest offensive weapon. Meadows led Butte in rebounding despite being just 6-foot-2, 205 pounds. Martin said if he had to pick an MVP for the Roadrunners this season it would probably be Meadows.

“He impacts and does so much for our team and it’s a guys you don’t have to call a play for, but he finds a way to get offensive rebounds and get steals and make a play,” Martin said. “He finishes so well around the hoop, and has that edge to him where he gets tough buckets then goes back and guards the best player and will do a good job on him.”

Wood averaged 12.8 points per game on 41.3% shooting and 34.3% on 3 pointers. Martin called Wood the Roadrunners’ “skill guy and shooter.”

“He’s so smooth and so crafty. He compliments Ozzy and Rolontae in a lot of ways where he can pass and shoot and he is also very good with Rolontae in getting timely buckets,” Martin said.

Wood had a layup in the final seconds in the Roadrunners’ victory against Feather River College on Saturday, Jan. 28.

Owens joined the Butte basketball team from the Roadrunners’ football team in the fall where he had a strong season at defensive back. Owens was the sixth man for the Roadrunners and provided the toughness and edge teams need late into the season.

On Jan. 18 Owens had eight steals and six rebounds in the Roadrunners’ 67-60 victory, as he averaged 9.7 points per game, 5.4 rebounds per game and 2.3 steals per game.

“He loves taking the challenge on guarding the team’s best player and he did that (Wednesday),” Martin said. “For a guy to come off the bench and make All Conference Defense shows the impact he made. He gives that edge of toughness and no backdown attitude and punch off the bench we need.”

Martin said the key to this year has been the experience on this year’s team, specifically pointing to the growth that some of the three-year players have gained and the greyshirting process Butte has used.

“It’s a good group of guys. There’s no attitudes, there’s no bickering, it’s a selfless group,” Martin said. “They truly believe the outcome of the game is more important than the self accolades. We preach coaches are going to want to recruit winners and some days you’ll impact scoring, some days it’s defending, some days it’s taking a charge and some days it’s you’re on the bench supporting your team. We have a great group of guys who buy into that and that’s what made a difference this year.”

Tip off Saturday is at 7:30 p.m. in San Francisco. To view the full CCCAA NorCal Regional Tournament bracket visit https://www.cccaasports.org/sports/mbkb/2022-23/files/MNorCal1.pdf.