CSI dumps No. 2 NIC women

COEUR d'ALENE - On a Saturday night of runs at Rolly Williams Court, a strong start to the men's basketball game helped the North Idaho College Cardinals move past the visiting Southern Idaho Golden Eagles.

The late one by the Golden Eagle women moved them into a first-place tie with NIC in the Scenic West Athletic Conference.

In the women's game, Southern Idaho's Patrice Toston, a 5-7 freshman guard, scored 26 points, including 7 of the team's final 11 points as the Golden Eagles upset the second-ranked Cardinals 70-68.

"It was very uncharacteristic of us, and we're trying to put our finger on it," NIC women's coach Chris Carlson said of his team's 19 turnovers. "We didn't come out with the intensity that we usually do on defense."

In the men's game, Chris Sarbaugh scored 7 of the first 12 NIC points, finishing with 15, as the Cardinal men - also tied for first - jumped out 44-19 at halftime on the way to a 75-64 win.

"I thought our energy level to start the game was really good," NIC men's coach Jared Phay said. "The crowd was awesome like they've been all year and it gave us some energy early on."

On Thursday, NIC hosts Utah State-Eastern, starting with the women's game at 5:30 p.m., followed by the men's game at 7:30.

WOMEN: CSI (14-10, 8-2 SWAC) shot 24 of 51 from the field. Tied at 59, CSI went on a 7-0 run, capped by two free throws by Adriana Dent with 1:12 remaining to build a 66-59 lead.

“They had a lot of very good shots on us and did it very consistently,” Carlson said. “Toston had a really good game on us. We just didn’t defend like we normally do and our offense just wasn’t clicking.”

NIC (23-2, 8-2) shot 3 of 19 from beyond the 3-point line.

“We just didn’t have that attack mentality,” Carlson said. “We had so many bunnies and we threw the ball around the basket and they weren’t going in. We had so many opportunities, but if you don’t come into the game with the right mental approach, on any given day, someone can take you down — and CSI took it to us.”

NIC beat CSI 60-42 in Twin Falls on Jan. 12.

“Our kids played well,” CSI coach Randy Rogers said. “We really fought and obviously we’re a better team when we make some shots. They shot almost 50 percent, but I thought our defense did a good job of pressuring them tonight and our big kids did a nice job on the glass when we needed some rebounds. This game is big for us and our psyche. We’ve got to come back here (for the Region 18 tournament Feb. 28-March 2) and wanted that No. 1 or 2 seed so we don’t have to play that extra game.”

Trailing 67-61, NIC guard Angela Woods hit a 3-pointer with 29 seconds remaining, but a free throw by CSI freshman Cassidy Skidmore with 10.3 seconds remaining made it 70-66 and pretty much sealed the win.

Katie Buskey and Georgia Stirton scored 14 points and Hannah Love had 13 points and nine rebounds for NIC.

“We didn’t play like ourselves,” Love said. “Nothing that we worked on this week in practice we put into play today. We play with our defense and the offense usually comes with it, but we started to force some things. We’ll be OK and we’ll get them again.”

In other SWAC action, Salt Lake (14-9, 5-5) beat Utah State-Eastern (13-10, 4-6) 69-44 and Snow (9-15, 3-7) edged Colorado Northwestern (13-12, 2-8) 50-46.

SOUTHERN IDAHO

Adriana Dent 2-6 4-7 8, Patrice Toston 8-14 8-10 26, Candace Prestwich 2-6 0-2 5, Megan Tanner 1-4 0-0 2, Jessy Saint-Felix 0-0 0-0 0, Zuleika Grinsell 0-0 0-0 0, Cassidy Skidmore 3-6 2-4 8, Julia Dufurrena 3-5 5-5 11, Rai Franklin 1-3 0-0 2, Sarah Viehweg 4-6 0-2 8. Totals 24-51 19-30 70.

NORTH IDAHO

Angela Woods 3-9 0-0 7, Katie Buskey 4-13 5-6 14, Kabri Emerson 2-5 3-4 7, Georgia Stirton 5-8 4-5 14, Hannah Love 5-10 2-4 10, Tori Davenport 0-3 0-0 0, Aimee Durbidge 0-3 1-4 1, Renae Mokrzycki 2-6 0-0 4, Mollie Kramer 3-5 0-0 6, Danika Johnson 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 25-65 15-23 68.

Halftime — NIC 33-32. 3-point goals — CSI 3-12 (Dent 0-1, Toston 2-5, Prestwich 1-4, Skidmore 0-1, Franklin 0-1), NIC 3-19 (Woods 1-6, Buskey 1-5, Love 1-3, Davenport 0-1, Durbidge 0-1, Mokrzycki 0-1, Kramer 0-1, Johnson 0-1). Rebounds — CSI 28 (Dufurrena, Viehweg 6), NIC 38 (Love 9). Assists — CSI 10 (Dent, Skidmore 3), NIC 10 (Emerson, Stirton, Love 2). Team fouls — CSI 16, NIC 20. Fouled out — Buskey, Love.

MEN: With injuries to Michael Middlebrooks (high right ankle sprain) and James Webb (ankle), NIC (22-3, 9-1) called on sophomores Jordan McCloud and Keon Lewis to fill their roles in the starting lineup.

Both delivered — with Lewis scoring 14 points and McCloud finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds.

“They were both huge for us,” Phay said. “We knew it was going to be a rebounding battle tonight and that’s what Jordan was doing for us. Jordan did a great job of rebounding and not giving them many second chance opportunities and did a great job tonight. He’s a hard worker and had to wait for his chance, but he got it tonight and didn’t let us down.”

McCloud didn’t find out he was starting until Friday, when his coaches told him to be ready to go.

“They kind of surprised me with it yesterday,” the 6-6 McCloud said. “They told me to get prepared to play against (Juwan) Newman and I told them I was ready. I just had to step in and do what I needed to do. We played our hearts out and played well on defense in the first and second half, but kind of let up in the second half.”

Limited to riding an exercise bike during practice all week, Middlebrooks came off the bench and finished with eight points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots in 22 minutes. Webb, who signed with Boise State in November, was limited to three minutes and was held scoreless.

“I really hate that thing (exercise bike) right now,” said Middlebrooks, who injured the ankle in a win against Snow on Jan. 24. “I retweaked it in the second half, and it’s painful right now — but I did what I had to do to play and not give up on my team. I’m a trooper, and this win was huge.”

NIC was 19 of 31 shooting from the floor for 61.3 percent in the first half, compared to 8 of 29 for CSI (16-8, 4-6).

“North (Idaho) was shooting the ball really well and started hitting some shots, which I think made the basket even bigger for them,” CSI coach Steve Gosar said. “We really didn’t match their intensity in the first half and they really took it to us in the first half. We didn’t compete the first 20 minutes, and I thought in the second half, we really did — and I know we showed up to play.”

In other SWAC games, Salt Lake (21-3, 9-1) beat Utah State-Eastern (12-12, 3-7) 77-63 and Snow (17-7, 5-5) beat Colorado Northwestern (7-18, 0-10) 76-52.

SOUTHERN IDAHO

Montigo Alford 3-7 0-0 6, Juwan Newman 2-6 0-0 4, Jaysean Page 6-12 3-3 15, James Reid 5-10 3-3 18, Darius Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Kareem Storey 2-4 2-2 7, Billy Reader 3-7 2-4 8, Sebastien Michineau 0-1 0-2 0, Detwon Rogers 1-6 3-6 5, Kennedy Esume 0-3 1-2 1. Totals 22-56 14-22 64.

NORTH IDAHO

Jordan McCloud 6-7 1-2 13, Jalil Abdul-Bassit 4-9 4-5 12, Chris Sarbaugh 5-7 4-4 15, Jason Wheelock 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Baracco 0-0 0-0 0, Keon Lewis 6-14 1-2 14, Michael Middlebrooks 4-6 0-0 8, Mikey Hope 4-9 0-2 10, Dalen Erickson 0-0 1-2 1, James Webb 0-0 0-0 0, Cole Luckett 0-2 0-0 0, Nathan Rathbun 0-2 0-0 0, Kaj Sherman 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 30-57 11-17 75.

Halftime — NIC 44-19. 3-point goals — CSI 6-17 (Alford 0-1, Paige 0-2, Reid 5-9, Storey 1-1, Michineau 0-1, Rogers 0-3), NIC 4-10 (Abdul-Bassit 0-2, Sarbaugh 1-1, Lewis 1-4, Hope 2-3). Rebounds — CSI 32 (Newman, Paige 5), NIC 37 (McCloud 9). Assists — CSI 8 (Paige 4), NIC 13 (Sarbaugh 13). Team fouls — CSI 16, NIC 17. Fouled out — none.