The Front Row with JASON ELLIOTT Feb. 6, 2013
On any given night, a team can find a way to win.
Especially in basketball, when it comes to rivalry games between North Idaho College and the College of Southern Idaho.
WHEN BOTH men's coach Jared Phay and women's coach Chris Carlson took over as coaches for the 2004-05 season, both went 0-3 against Southern Idaho.
Since then, both have had some success against their archrivals with the Cardinal men sweeping CSI for the first time in school history in 2008-09 and the NIC women sweeping in 2010-11 - the same year they won the NJCAA championship with a 32-3 record.
NIC's men also swept CSI in 2009-10, the year before the Golden Eagles won a national championship.
"I think we've had some really good teams the last 4-5 years to elevate our program and get on the same level that they're on," Phay said.
After games last weekend, Phay is 11-17 and Carlson 14-14 against CSI. NIC's men and women both won in Twin Falls on Jan. 12.
"It was a great atmosphere and it's going to be like that for the tournament," said CSI men's coach Steve Gosar of last Saturday's game. "I told the guys at halftime to remember this 20 minutes and we leave this court better than we did in the first 20 minutes (trailed 44-19 at half) and that's how we're going to pick it up for the tournament."
THE MEN'S basketball team at NIC put itself in a good position with a 75-64 win against Southern Idaho last Saturday at home.
NIC remains tied with Salt Lake at 9-1 in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, with five games remaining. The teams will play again Feb. 16 in what could determine the regular season champion and No. 1 seed to the Region 18 tournament Feb. 28 to March 2. The men's and women's Region 18 tourneys are both at NIC.
“We need to keep driving and keep getting better,” Phay said. “We know the teams in this conference are going to continue to get better. We can’t be content with where we’re at.”
NIC beat Salt Lake 87-78 on Jan. 26 after losing 75-74 in Salt Lake City on Jan. 3.
Both can clinch byes in the first round of regionals this week — NIC by beating Utah State-Eastern on Thursday or Colorado Northwestern on Saturday, and Salt Lake by beating Snow on Saturday.
“We’re excited, but just know we’ve got to keep competing to win a conference championship,” Phay said. “We did what we had to do the last few games, but need to close it out at home.”
After falling to the CSI women 70-68 last Saturday, the NIC women are tied with the Golden Eagles, with identical opponents heading into a Feb. 23 showdown in Twin Falls.
“We’ve got five games left,” Carlson said. “It could come down to a few exciting road games and we’ll have the last one at their place before we come back here for regionals.”
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected].