Even though there’s still four Golden Valley Conference games remaining for College of the Redwoods’ men’s basketball team, there’s none bigger than Thursday night’s game on the road against Butte.

Butte is atop the GVC with a 5-1 record, with their only loss coming against CR last month. The Corsairs are alone in second place at 4-2 with a chance to draw even with the Roadrunners on Thursday.

A loss on Thursday would almost sink the Corsairs’ conference title hopes as they’d need to make up two full games on Butte with only three games remaining. While a win Thursday would only have CR tie Butte for first place, with the Corsairs taking the head-to-head matchups, they’d get the automatic playoff bid given to conference champions.

CR got the win in the first matchup thanks to stellar play from a pair of freshmen, guard Alfonso Medina scored 26 points on 11-14 shooting with two blocks and forward Ty Dahlin got a triple-double with 20 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists but CR’s head coach Ryan Bisio thinks Butte may switch up their gameplan against Dahlin on Thursday.

“I think they’re going to make Ty prove that he’s a reliable jump shooter,” Bisio said of Dahlin, who went 2-3 from deep in their first matchup with Butte. “I think they’re going to give him more space. He was very effective off the dribble, not only just getting to the rim and finishing but also spraying it out.”

In their last matchup, Butte placed 6’11” center Jessy Maximin, who’s averaging 16.1 rebounds per game this season, on Dahlin. Last time out, CR did a good job of keeping Maximin off the boards with him bringing in 12 rebounds in the Corsairs’ win.

“He’s got to guard Ty or Brandon Lucas so I think they’re going to stick with Ty and maybe just really play off him and try to just pack the lane,” Bisio said of Maximin. “We got to do everything we can to keep him off the glass. By the numbers, that’s the thing that Butte does at an elite level. It’s the only statistic they have where they average more than a point per possession, on the offensive glass.”

CR is No. 2 in the state in made threes and will likely reclaim the top spot from Santiago Canyon on Thursday after Santiago Canyon jumped in front after making 17 threes on Wednesday. The Corsairs are also second in the state with 22.2 assists per game, trailing San Bernardino Valley is at 22.8 per game.

“I think people understand that Redwoods wants to shoot the threes but I think they also understand that we don’t do it in a gimmicky way,” Bisio said. “We’re not trying to hit a quota. We’re just trying to play great basketball.”

The Corsairs’ offense has been clicking on all cylinders lately, scoring 96 points in two of their last three games, with sophomore Brandon Lucas stealing the show last week, as he knocked down ten threes in CR’s win over Shasta. Lucas is second in the GVC with 75 threes, trailing only his teammate, sophomore Mason Mottashed who has 88, which leads the entire state.

What’s next?

The Corsairs road trip will continue on Saturday with a 1 p.m. tip-off against last place Siskiyous. CR hasn’t seen success with those early afternoon road games so far this year in the GVC.

“That just comes down to the maturity of each group,” Bisio said of the quick turnaround after Thursday. “We have yet to win a road game in the GVC this season with a 1 p.m. tip, this is really our last chance and I think framing it to them and making sure that this is the last mountain that we have to conquer so that we can say that we grew.”

Dylan McNeill can be reached at 707-441-0526.