NIC men get back on track
<p>North Idaho College's Nick Fromm tries to edge out Trevor Bamgartner from the College of Eastern Utah as they chase down a loose ball during the first half.</p>
<p>North Idaho College's Ameer Shamsud-din makes a quick move toward the baseline past James Kinney from the College of Eastern Utah during the first half of the Cardinal's 87-52 Thursday.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - To cure its slow start, it appeared all the 18th-ranked North Idaho Cardinal men's basketball team needed was to get back home.
Sophomore Nick Fromm scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds as the Cardinals defeated the 25th-ranked Eastern Utah Golden Eagles 87-52 for their first Scenic West Athletic Conference win on Thursday at Christianson Gym.
"We had a little slump to start the season," said Fromm, a former Lake City High standout. "We weren't playing team basketball in our first three games. We just played some team defense tonight."
Guided by assistant coach Corey Symons, NIC (16-3, 1-3 SWAC) jumped out to a 39-23 halftime lead after holding CEU (14-4, 2-2) to 27-percent shooting from the floor.
"After starting 0-3 in league, we needed to get it started," Symons said. "We had three great days of practice, but our guys had to execute the game plan that coach Phay set out for us."
Phay and NIC athletic director Al Williams were in Florida on Thursday night at an NCAA rules conference on international players, but are expected back for Saturday’s game with Colorado Northwestern.
“We’d talked this week about our attitude and effort,” Symons said. “It had been down the last three games. We hadn’t been putting it all out there, but we did tonight and got the win.”
Earlier, sophomore Tugce Canitez had 18 points and 10 rebounds as the 18th-ranked Cardinal women ran away from Eastern Utah 80-52 to improve to 16-2, 2-2.
“We’re really playing some good basketball right now,” NIC coach Chris Carlson said. “We got on a bit of a run in the first half and were able to take them out of the game. They’ve got some good players, but we were able to keep them in check tonight.”
Eastern Utah (7-10, 1-3) was held to 17 of 52 shooting from the floor and had 25 turnovers.
MEN: NIC was sparked off the bench in the first half by Petar Joksimovic, who scored 10 of his 13 points in the opening half.
“Neither Nick or Petar take a night off,” Symons said. “We knew we were going against one of the best rebounding teams in the league, if not the nation. We were preaching to them all week about getting to the boards and getting after the ball.”
NIC outrebounded CEU 44-39, and limited Golden Eagles leading scorer Jonathan Evans to five points and James Kinney to four points.
“Our leading scorers went 4 of 24 tonight,” CEU assistant coach Chris Skinkis said. “Our energy level was down tonight and we had very few stretches where we moved the ball on a consistent basis.”
Skinis was filling in for coach Brad Barton, who was suspended for the game after picking up two technical fouls in last Saturday’s game against Salt Lake.
NIC hosts Colorado Northwestern on Saturday at 5 p.m.
EASTERN UTAH
Brandon Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Trevor Bamgartner 0-4 0-0 0, Renan Custodio 2-2 1-2 6, Aaron Hawk-Harris 1-3 2-2 4, Bryant Crowder 5-9 1-3 12, James Kinney 2-12 0-1 4, Jonathan Mills 2-12 1-2 5, Cameron Evans 5-9 0-0 13, Jimmy Bosserman 0-1 0-0 0, Jonah Blanchfield 0-0 0-0 0, Brady Hurst 2-7 2-4 6, Maxim Zakharov 1-5 0-0 2. Totals 20-63 7-14 52.
NORTH IDAHO
DeAndre Taylor 3-11 0-0 9, Nate Clinton 0-1 0-0, Zach Peterson 0-0 0-0 0, Ameer Shamsud-din 3-4 0-0 8, Jake Owsley 0-2 0-0 0, Michael Hale 3-7 7-8 14, Idris Lasisi 1-2 0-0 2, Nick Fromm 7-3 1-2 15, Conner White 1-1 0-0 3, Tyrone White 5-10 2-2 12, Petar Joksimovic 5-8 0-0 13, Anthony DiLoreto 5-7 1-2 11. Totals 33-66 11-14 87.
Halftime — NIC 37-24. 3-point goals — CEU 5-25 (Williams 0-1, Bamgartner 0-4, Custodio 1-1, Crowder 1-2, Kinney 0-6, Evans 3-7, Bosserman 0-1, Zakharov 0-3). NIC 10-24 (Taylor 3-6, Clinton 0-1, Shamsud-din 2-2, Hale 1-4, Lasisi 0-1, C. White 1-1, T. White 0-4, Joksimovic 3-5). Rebounds — CEU 39 (Mills 12). NIC 44 (DiLoreto 10). Assists — CEU 6 (Bamgartner, Kinney, Mills 2). NIC 9 (Hale 3). Total fouls — CEU 18, NIC 16. Fouled out — Crowder. Technical fouls — Crowder.
WOMEN: NIC ran out to a 40-20 halftime as former Lakeland High standout Camille Reynolds scored 14 of her 16 points in the first half.
NJCAA Division I Player of the Week Kama Griffitts hit three 3-pointers and scored 13 points for NIC.
Bruna Deichmann scored 21 points for CEU, which committed 25 turnovers.
“We don’t have a lot of depth,” CEU coach Dave Paur said. “We’ve proved we can beat anyone in the league. We just haven’t been able to win games back-to-back against good teams. NIC proved they are the best team in the league and showed it tonight.”
NIC hosts Colorado Northwestern on Saturday at 3 p.m.
EASTERN UTAH
Jasmine Scott 0-0 0-0 0, Maddie Hind 1-3 2-4 4, Candice Cornaby 0-0 0-0 0, Chelsea Morgan 1-2 0-0 3, Christin Figgins 1-7 2-2 5, Daiana Ferreria 1-2 2-2 4, Bruna Deichmann 7-15 7-8 21, Kathryn James 0-1 0-0 0, Priscila Santos 6-19 3-7 15, Abbi Kay 0-0 0-0 0, Elyse Ivy 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-52 16-23 52.
NORTH IDAHO
Kama Griffitts 5-12 0-0 13, Chantel Divilbiss 1-5 1-3 4, Camille Reynolds 6-14 2-2 16, Timena Shebala 1-3 0-0 3, Tugce Canitez 7-12 3-8 18, Amy Warbrick 0-4 1-2 1, Korina Baker 1-4 2-2 4, Kiki Edwards-Teasley 4-8 3-4 11, Julia Salmio 1-1 0-0 2, Amanda Carlton 0-2 0-0 0, Deanna Dotts 2-7 4-5 8. Totals 28-72 16-26 80.
Halftime — NIC 40-20. 3-point goals — CEU 2-7 (Morgan 1-1, Figgins 1-4, Deichmann 0-1, Kay 0-1). NIC 8-25 (Griffitts 3-8, Divilbiss 1-3, Reynolds 2-5, Shebala 1-3, Canitez 1-1, Warbrick 0-1, Baker 0-1, Carlton 0-2, Dotts 0-1). Rebounds — CEU 38 (Santos 11). NIC 53 (Dotts 12). Assists — CEU 1 (Kay 1). NIC 14 (Baker, Dotts 3). Team fouls — CEU 19, NIC 20. Fouled out — Ferreria.