Cardinal women upset Bruins, headed back to national tourney

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL

PRICE, Utah - "Back to Back in the SWAC."

Returning only one player from last year's Region 18 women's tournament championship team, North Idaho is going back to Kansas following Saturday's 86-76 win over top-seeded Salt Lake at the Bunnell Dmitrich Athletic Center.

North Idaho (26-6) advances to the 2010 NJCAA National Tournament March 16-20 in Salina, Kan. as the District M champion and now will wait until Wednesday before learning their seeding and first-round matchup for nationals.

"I'm so proud of this team," North Idaho coach Chris Carlson said. "To rise above everything and get this done, most of them freshman, it's amazing. Katie (Sanders) is the only one back from that team that played a lot. They believed they could do it all year. I'm proud of them."

Region 18 tournament MVP Tugce Canitez had 22 point and 10 rebounds, followed by former Lakeland Hawk and All-tournament selection Camille Reynolds with 22 points on 9 of 10 from the field.

"Camille (Reynolds) came out on fire," Carlson said. "She had a great tournament. Tugce was the MVP of the tournament and played fantastic. Our defense was real strong and when we needed stops - we got them."

Sophomore Katie Sanders added 14 points on 6 of 8 from the field and freshman Amy Warbrick 11 points for the Cardinals.

Salt Lake (25-6) guard Haley Holmstead, who had averaged 27.7 points per game against NIC during the regular season, was held to 21 in the tournament final on Saturday.

"We mixed how we guarded her today," Carlson said. "Aubree (Chesnut) did our defensive game plan. We had some cues on what we wanted to do, but if we don't execute the plan - it wasn't going to work."

NORTH IDAHO

Chantel Divilbiss 0-1 0-1 0, Camille Reynolds 9-10 2-2 22, Amy Warbrick 2-3 6-8 11, KiKi Edwards-Teasley 3-5 0-0 6, Kama Griffitts 3-14 1-2 8, Katie Sanders 6-8 2-3 14, Sadie Lazzarini 0-2 0-0 0, Deanna Dotts 1-2 1-2 3, Tugce Canitez 9-12 4-5 22. Totals 33-57 16-23 86.

SALT LAKE

Haley Holmstead 8-14 4-5 21, Dayna Burgess 4-8 1-2 10, Sheila Adams 3-9 4-4 13, Mina Jovanovic 3-7 4-4 10, Kelsey Sparkman 0-1 6-6 6, Marci Grayer 0-0 0-0 0, Allie Blake 3-5 2-4 8, Amie Jensen 0-0 0-0 0, Jami Mokofisi 4-5 0-2 8. Totals 25-49 21-27 76.

Halftime - NIC 46-31. 3-point goals - NIC 4-12 (Divilbiss 0-1, Reynolds 2-3, Warbrick 1-1, Griffitts 1-6, Lazzarini 0-1), SLCC 5-11 (Holmstead 1-2, Burgess 1-3, Adams 3-6). Rebounds - NIC 30 (Canitez 10), SLCC 27 (Sparkman 6). Assists - NIC 16 (Griffitts 7), SLCC 17 (Burgess 9). Team fouls - NIC 21, SLCC 21. Fouled out - none.

MEN'S BASKETBALL

PRICE, Utah - After finishing second in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, the host Golden Eagles of Eastern Utah battled back on their home floor to win the Region 18 tournament over top-seeded North Idaho 88-80, ending the Cardinals season at 27-5.

Eastern Utah (23-9), who entered the Region 18 tournament as the No. 2 seed, advanced to a play-in game on Tuesday in Salt Lake City against either Mesa Community College or Cohise College for the area's lone bid to the NJCAA National tournament in Hutchinson, Kan.

North Idaho fell behind 37-31 at halftime, but hung around early on despite shooting 12 of 31 from the floor in the first half.

"We started in a real shooting slump," North Idaho coach Jared Phay said. "I told them at halftime to keep competing and not to lose our confidence. We started to make a run and had a chance to make it go down to the wire, but we missed some shots late."

Tony Dalton and Isaiah Williams led the Eagles 16 points apiece, followed by tournament MVP Michael Glover and Jonathan Mills with 13 points each.

"I was really proud of this group," Phay said. "They've got zero quit. Even though we were down, I knew we'd get back into it. They never lay down."

Phay was named the Scenic West Athletic Conference Coach of the Year, joining Michael Hale and Guy-Marc Michel on the All-SWAC team, announced after the men's final.

B.J. Shearry and Renado Parker were named to the second team, with Taylor Stevens an honorable mention.

"This was an outstanding season," Phay said. "We accomplished a lot of things. We've got nothing to hold our heads about right now."

Parker had 20 points, followed by Stevens with 18 points. Idell Bell added 10 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinals.

NORTH IDAHO

DeAndre Taylor 2-5 3-4 7, Idell Bell 3-12 3-4 10, Renado Parker 6-12 8-11 20, Michael Hale 0-5 0-0 0, Nick Fromm 1-1 0-0 2, Logan Jones 3-7 2-2 8, BJ Shearry 3-5 3-4 9, Taylor Stevens 6-16 6-15 18, Guy-Marc Michel 3-4 0-0 6. Totals 27-67 19-25 80.

EASTERN UTAH

Michael Glover 5-10 3-6 13, Isaiah Williams 5-11 2-2 16, Cliff Colimon 3-6 0-1 8, Tony Dalton 3-8 7-8 16, Aaron Hawk-Harris 1-1 4-5 7, Fernando Defavari 0-2 0-0 0, Jonathan Mills 3-8 7-14 13, Nick Thompson 2-4 4-4 9, Vander Joaquim 2-6 2-3 6. Totals 24-56 29-43 88.

Halftime - CEU 37-31. 3-point goals - NIC 7-31 (Taylor 0-2, Bell 1-7, Hale 0-3, Jones 0-4, Stevens 6-15), CEU 11-22 (Williams 4-8, Colimon 2-4, Dalton 3-5, Hawk-Harris 1-1, Thompson 1-2, Joaquim 0-2). Rebounds - NIC 41 (Shearry 7), CEU 47 (Mills 12). Assists - NIC 19 (Jones 6), CEU 16 (Colimon 6). Team fouls - NIC 28, CEU 24. Fouled out - Shearry, Stevens, Hawk-Harris, Defavari.

SOFTBALL

North Idaho 7-9

E. Oregon 3-2

LaGRANDE, Ore. - North Idaho stepped out of Scenic West Athletic Conference play over the weekend and earned a sweep over the Eastern Oregon Mountainers on Saturday to complete a 4-0 trip through Oregon.

Lauren Maloney hit two homers and drove in three runs for the Cardinals in the first game.

In the nightcap, North Idaho scored four runs in the top of the seventh inning to pull away.

North Idaho (21-11) hosts Salt Lake on March 19 at Memorial Field.

FIRST GAME

North Idaho 000 322 0 - 7 11 2

Eastern Oregon 010 020 0 - 3 4 1

Kathy Comack and Renae Kimbell; Jennifer McDonnell, Suzie Espinoza (5), Whitney Hodges (6) and Abbey Fix. W - Comack. L - Espinoza.

HITS: NIC - Maloney 2, Krier 3, Gonzales, Hartnett 2, Plenger, Kimbell, Springer. EOU - Woodhead, Hughes, Buchanan, Reisbeck. 2B - Krier 2, Hartnett, Springer, Hughes, Reisbeck. HR - Maloney 2, Buchanan.

SECOND GAME

North Idaho 100 400 4 - 9 11 0

Eastern Oregon 000 001 1 - 2 7 2

Alyssa Erickson, Jessica Ross (3), Kathy Comack (5) and Renae Kimbell; Jennifer McDonnell, Whitney Hodges (4), Suzie Espinoza (7) and Nyssa Salazar and Abbey Fix (4). W - Erickson. L - McDonnell.

HITS: NIC - Hawley 2, Krier, Gonzales, Hartnett 2, Kimbell, Stark, Springer, Chesnut 2. EOU - Byrne 2, Woodhead, Hughes 2, Salazar, Espinoza. 2B - Stark, Chesnut. HR - Hughes.

Dalton co-medalist for Cardinals in opener

MOSES LAKE, Wash. - North Idaho's Branden Dalton shot even-par 72 to earn co-medalist honors at the school's tri-match at Moses Point Golf Course.

"We had a couple teams stumble this afternoon," North Idaho coach Randy Boswell said of the men's performance. "We went out and played, but we were a little rusty."

Dillon Williams accidentally played the wrong ball on No. 5 and was disqualified from the tournament.

"He was pretty disappointed in that," Boswell said of the disqualification. "He could have kept playing, but when he went to tee off on the next hole - he realized it wasn't his ball. He could have kept playing, but he was being honest."

Ashley Burke shot an 80 to lead the Cardinal women.

"It's early," Boswell said. "Hopefully, we'll continue to improve. We knew we weren't going to be in mid-season form. We'll just continue to get better and better."

Whitworth won both the men's and women's team titles.

North Idaho travels to the Lewis and Clark State College Invitational on March 15.

At Moses Point,

Par 72

Yardage 6,965

TEAM SCORES - Whitworth 304, North Idaho 306, Whitman 316.

MEDALIST - Brandon Dalton, North Idaho, Steve Campbell, Whitman, 82.

NORTH IDAHO (306) - Branden Dalton 72. Kris Brett 76. Jeremy Jensen 77. Ben Johnson 81.

OTHERS - Cody Mee, North Idaho, 86. Dillon Williams, North Idaho, DQ.

Par 72

Yardage 5,800

NORTH IDAHO (354) - Ashley Burke 80. Kelsey Harden 87. Amanda Wemple 91. Emily Thorud 96.