NIC men, women close in on Region 18 first-round byes

The North Idaho College men's and women's basketball teams will head out of town for the first time in nearly a month as they travel to Snow College in Ephraim, Utah, to resume Scenic West Athletic Conference play tonight.

In their previous matchups with Snow, NIC's men - who dropped one spot to 10th in this week's NJCAA poll despite winning both games last week - won 82-77 in overtime on Jan. 24 in Coeur d'Alene, after winning 84-77 at Snow on Jan. 5.

NIC (24-3, 11-1 SWAC) has won nine straight games and is in first place by one-half game over Salt Lake - which the Cardinals face on Saturday in Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake (22-3, 10-1), ranked 12th in this week’s poll, beat NIC 75-74 on Jan. 3 — the Cardinals’ last loss — and fell to the Cardinals in Coeur d’Alene 87-78 on Jan. 26. The Bruins will host Southern Idaho (19-8, 6-6) tonight. Utah State-Eastern (12-14, 3-9) travels to Colorado Northwestern (7-20, 0-12) on Saturday in Rangely, Colo.

NIC leads the conference in scoring offense (87 points per game) and scoring defense (64.3 ppg).

Salt Lake sophomore Skyler Halford leads the conference in scoring at 17.6 points per game, followed by Connor Van Brocklin of Snow with 15.8.

NIC’s Keon Lewis is seventh in scoring with 13.9 and Jalil Abdul-Bassit is eighth with 12.3 points per game. NIC is averaging 6.4 blocked shots a game. NIC forward Michael Middlebrooks is seventh in the nation with 3.1 blocks a game.

NIC’s men and women close out the regular season Feb. 23 at Southern Idaho. NIC hosts the men’s and women’s Region 18 tournaments Feb. 28-March 2.

WOMEN: NIC (25-2, 10-2 SWAC) enters the weekend tied with Southern Idaho (17-10, 10-2) for first place with three games to go. The teams will play again next Saturday in Twin Falls in what could determine the top two seeds the Region 18 tournament.

First up for NIC will be Snow (9-16, 3-8) — which the Cardinals have beaten both times in league play, winning 56-47 in Ephraim on Jan. 5 and in Coeur d’Alene 81-50 on Jan. 24.

On Saturday, NIC travels to Salt Lake (15-9, 6-5) to face the Bruins, who defeated the Cardinals 56-48 on Jan. 3. A win in either game will give NIC a first-round bye in the Region 18 tournament.

CSI can also wrap up a first-round bye with one win this weekend.

Utah State-Eastern (13-12, 4-8) and Colorado Northwestern (13-14, 2-10) play on Saturday in Rangely.

NIC guard Katie Buskey is third in the conference in scoring with 11.3 points per game.

Both games tonight and Saturday will be available by webcast at www.nicathletics.com.