Cardinal men storm back, but No. 7 CSI escapes with victory

| February 5, 2012 8:00 PM

TWIN FALLS - The North Idaho College Cardinals erased a 20-point halftime deficit, but a 3-pointer by Fabyon Harris with 34 seconds remaining gave the seventh-ranked Southern Idaho Golden Eagles (21-2, 7-1 SWAC) the lead for good in a 69-68 win against the NIC Cardinals in a Scenic West Athletic Conference men's basketball game Saturday night.

Antoine Hosley hit a 3-pointer to pull NIC (18-5, 4-4) within 67-66.

Sebastian Michineau made two free throws with 11 seconds remaining to extend the lead to 69-66. Hosley was fouled with 2.4 seconds left. He made the first of two foul shots, then attempted to miss the second, but the ball bounced off the rim and the backboard and in, making it 69-68 CSI.

"We didn't have any timeouts left, so I just told him to make the first and miss the second," NIC coach Jared Phay said of the final seconds. "Antoine threw it hard at the rim and it bounced in. That was a bad bounce for us there."

Hosley finished with a game-high 29 points for NIC, which outscored CSI 47-28 in the second half.

"We battled back and tied it up," Phay said. "We had our chances down the stretch, but they just hit a couple of shots to put it away."

NIC has now lost four straight games after a 4-0 conference start.

NIC, which has played the last three weekends on the road, returns home to host Colorado Northwestern on Thursday.

NORTH IDAHO

Keon Lewis 3-7 5-6 11, Michael Middlebrooks 6-6 0-3 12, Antoine Hosley 11-15 2-2 29, Conner White 1-5 0-0 2, Kaj Sherman 3-8 6-7 12, Jordan McCloud 1-4 0-0 2, Casey Ward 0-0 0-0 0, Tyrell Lewis 0-6 0-0 0, Kwame Bates 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 25-54 13-18 68.

SOUTHERN IDAHO

Fabyon Harris 7-16 7-8 24, Pat Swilling 4-11 0-2 9, Rafriel Guthrie 4-11 3-5 12, Sebastien Michineau 1-6 4-5 6, Paul Bunch 1-5 2-4 4, Kevin Attila 0-3 0-0 0, Gerson Santo 4-12 4-6 12, Paul Egwuonwu 1-4 0-0 2. Totals 22-68 20-30 69.

Halftime - CSI 41-21. 3-point goals - NIC 5-15 (K. Lewis 0-1, Hosley 5-6, White 0-4, T. Lewis 0-3, Bates 0-1), CSI 5-20 (Harris 3-7, Swilling 1-5, Guthrie 1-2, Michineau 0-3, Attila 0-3). Rebounds - NIC 36 (Middlebrooks 13), CSI 46 (Santo 10). Assists - NIC 10 (T. Lewis 5), CSI 9 (Swilling 4). Team fouls - NIC 22, CSI 15. Fouled out - T. Lewis.