Photo by Mike Daly

REDDING, Calif. – The Shasta College women's basketball team suffered a 91-71 home loss to No. 18 Redwoods Saturday to drop its ninth straight game to open Golden Valley Conference play.

The Knights started the year 12-5 overall and had not lost consecutive games until its current losing streak. Having five of the six GVC teams ranked in the CCCWBCA North Regional Poll is a tough challenge.

"Some of the teams we beat are in first place in their conferences," said Shasta College coach Jerry Brown. "This year is a freaky league. I've been coaching 26 years, 28 total and this is the first time I've seen five teams ranked in the top (15).

"There are no weak holes in the schedule."

Jenna Wallace, who entered the game ranked fourth in the state in scoring, poured in a career-high 32 points in the losing effort to go with eight rebounds.

"You can see how hard she plays in games, she plays just as hard in practice," Brown said. "Anything we do she's always first. Up and down the floor running, she can play inside or outside she doesn't care."

Wallace and freshman Megan Collins combined for 19 of Shasta's 22 first-quarter points but the Knights trailed 29-22 after one. But Redwoods buried back-to-back 3s to fuel a 10-0 run to start the second and Shasta went nearly seven minutes with only one made field goal. The Knights' deficit grew to 23 in the first half before trailing 53-21 at the halfway mark.

Shasta never pulled within single digits the rest of the way, getting it as close as 16 in the third quarter and got within 14 in the fourth on Tessa Thomsen's runner in the lane. Wallace hit three 3-pointers in the final period but the deficit was too much to overcome.

Redwoods made 16 3-pointers in the win and was led by Ashley Quigley's 22 points.

Collins finished with 16 points and eight assists, Kali Cummings ended with 10 points and Riley Wallen scored seven points and had eight rebounds for Shasta, which has back-to-back road games at Lassen (Wednesday) and Feather River Saturday before hosting Butte on Feb. 5.

STANDINGS
Team GVC, Overall
#18 Redwoods 4-1, 16-4
RV Butte 3-1, 17-5
RV Siskiyous 2-1, 14-7
RV Feather River 2-2, 11-9
RV Lassen 1-3, 16-6
Shasta 0-4, 12-9
*RV = Receiving votes
*CCCSIA Women's Basketball State Poll (Jan. 20)