Butte College men open conference play with home win against Lassen

By JOSEPH SHUFELBERGER-Sports Writer

BUTTE VALLEY — A dream beginning nearly turned into one nightmarish ending.

But the Butte College men's basketball team held off a late charge — or more precisely press — from Lassen for a 99-88 victory late Wednesday night in the Roadrunners' Golden Valley Conference home opener.

Arthur Caldwell scored 26 points, Jud Sailsbery had 20 and Jamaal Davis added 18 points for Butte (11-7).

The Roadrunners led 44-30 at halftime and increased their advantage in the initial minutes of the second half before the Cougars, ranked 18th in the state, chipped away at the deficit.

A Marvin White 3-pointer drew the Cougars within 87-83 with 1:39 left in the game. Lawrence Otis' 3 then left Lassen within 91-88 with about 50 seconds left.

Butte had an answer whenever it absolutely needed it, usually with a Caldwell basket. After White's late 3, Caldwell got an easy basket with an assist from Sailsbery, and Caldwell again scored after Otis' 3.

"They're a talented team, you could tell that and we knew they're going to make some runs," Roadrunners coach Russ Critchfield said. "It's one of the few times during the season when we had breakdowns in our press offense, and against a team like that you can't do it.

"We were fortunate to have enough of a cushion that we could weather it."

Butte did get just enough points from its break offense and made more than enough free throws. The Roadrunners were 29 of 36 from the line. Lassen was 12-17.

"We stepped up and made our free throws," Critchfield said.

Butte also continued its strong shooting. The Roadrunners finished the game shooting 60.4 percent as they made 32 of 53 field-goal attempts.

Nikolas Petruk added 15 points for Butte, and Justin Gavard had 12 of his 14 points in the first half. Gavard also led Butte with nine rebounds and Sailsbery had five assists.

For the Cougars (13-10), Meshawn Beard scored 22 points before fouling out with 5:22 left in the game. White had 19 points, and Juandrico Walker had 15.

Lassen didn't help itself with three technical fouls in the second half with the first coming for delay of game, the second on coach Devin Aye and the third on freshman T.J. McCauley with 18.2 seconds left as the Roadrunners finally got to exhale with a 95-88 lead and going to the line for more.

"It's huge. I think they're the preseason (GVC) favorite," Critchfield said of beating state-ranked Lassen, "and you always want to take care of business at home."

The men next play at Siskiyous in Weed on Saturday and at Shasta next Wednesday before returning home Jan. 18 for a 2 p.m. contest against Redwoods.

Women

Butte 58, Lassen 51

Casey McHargue scored 18 points, Jaysheana M-Williams had 12 points and Darian Pruis had 10 more as the Roadrunners won their GVC opener as well.

Like the men, the women play their next two contests on the road before returning home for a noon game against Redwoods on Jan. 18.

Connect with Sports Writer Joseph Shufelberger at www.twitter.com/JShufelberger and read his blog at http://www.norcalblogs.com/norcalsports.