Eagle Men Top Lassen in the Playoff Hunt

The College of the Siskiyous' men's basketball team is having its best season in nearly a decade and hopes to earn a playoff berth with a victory at Feather River in the final regular season game of the season Wednesday at 5 p.m.

Siskiyous started fast and led most of the way in a 94-82 win over Shasta in their Sophomore Day game early Saturday afternoon in Weed. The Eagles improved to 15-12 overall and 4-5 in the Golden Valley Conference, and they're going down to the wire with three other teams behind league-leading Redwoods (8-1, 24-3).

Feather River lost a rescheduled game against Shasta, 101-76, on Monday and is 4-3 in the GVC (6-18 overall) going into Wednesday's game. "They're beatable," said Eagle head coach Kyle Heath, whose team did beat them, 98-70, on January 21^st in Weed.

The Eagles are a game behind Butte (5-4, 13-13) in the conference standings and a half-game ahead of Lassen (3-5, 7-16). Feather River finishes the season at Redwoods on Saturday.

The Eagles had their chances in a 74-65 loss to visiting Redwoods on Thursday evening. They out-rebounded the Corsairs but couldn't get a bunch of shots to fall from in close, shot just 37.3 percent from the field, and made only 2 of 13 three-point attempts.

Unlike that game, the Eagles were on target from deep from the start in their win over Shasta early Saturday afternoon. Siskiyous made 3 threes in the first few minutes and 5 in the first half, two by sophomore Braeden Watts, one each by sophomores Jacob Condez, Cade Ealy, and Will Dobson.

Those four sophomores and Zane Lueth were recognized with their families before the start of the game, and they all started. Lueth didn't make any threes, but he had two crowd-pleasing dunks, the second one giving the Eagles a 92-82 lead and all but settling the matter with just over 1 minute to play.

Though the home team led for all but a minute or so, Shasta kept coming. Much of the Eagles' 45-33 lead disappeared in the final 4 minutes of the first half, as Shasta cut the gap to 47-43.

Shasta took a brief 57-56 lead early in the second half, but the Eagles went on a 16-3 run over the next 5 minutes to go up 72-60. The lead was down to 6 points with 2 minutes to play before a breakaway lay-in by Landon Ellis was soon followed by Lueth's dunk.

Freshman point guard Dylan Neufeld led the Eagles with 17 points, Dobson scored 16, Lueth 13, Ealy 12, Watts 9, Nick Dore 9, Ellis 8, and Condez 5.

While the Eagles' shooting was a bit off on Thursday against Redwoods, the Corsairs weren't much better, making just 5 of 30 three-point attempts and shooting 40.6 percent from the field.

Five Eagles scored between 10 and 12 points in that game, with Ealy and Lueth both posting double-doubles. Ealy scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds; Lueth had 10 points and 11 rebounds. Cole Bernius finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds, Ellis made all 4 of his shots from the field and scored 10 points, and Neufeld scored 10.

The Eagles trailed by 2 at the half, 43-41. They were down 65-57 with just over 7 minutes to play and  69-63 after a Josh Allen reverse lay-in with about 3:30 left. But they couldn't get any closer.

The last time an Eagles' men's basketball team won as many as 15 games was 2014, and that was also the last time they played in the postseason.

Heath said the Eagles' success this season is a testament to what happens with a group that likes to play together, plays hard and fast, and moves the ball around.

The coach noted that they've had "no bad losses." All but one of their defeats were to top-15 teams.

By Steve Gerace