CSI women beat NIC for No. 1 seed; Phay wins No. 200

* WOMEN

TWIN FALLS - With a chance to win the Scenic West Athletic Conference title outright, fourth-ranked North Idaho College lost 64-53 to No. 17 College of Southern Idaho on Saturday and settled for a share of the conference title.

But with the win, CSI (19-11, 12-3 SWAC) earned the No. 1 seed to the Region 18 tournament next week at NIC. North Idaho College (27-3, 12-3) will be the No. 2 seed. CSI earned the tiebreaker by taking two of three from NIC during conference play.

Both teams receive first-round byes on Thursday, and will begin play Friday.

"We'd like to be the No. 1 seed, but I'm glad we have the bye - I think the bye is bigger than the No. 1 seed," NIC coach Chris Carlson said.

Patrice Toston scored a game-high 22 points for CSI.

"The thing that jumps out to me is, we got outrebounded so much (42-30)," Carlson said. "CSI is playing well; they have a lot of losses from the first half of the season, but in league, they're as good as anybody. They just beat us to the ball."

Hannah Love led NIC with 10 points.

“We just weren’t real sharp,” Carlson said. “There were three or four things that we knew they were going to do, and I don’t think we were focused enough to take them away.”

NIC will play Friday at noon, vs. the winner of Thursday’s game between Salt Lake and Colorado Northwestern.

NORTH IDAHO

Renae Mokryzcki 4-5 1-2 9, Angela Woods 3-10 0-0 8, Katie Buskey 3-8 2-2 8, Georgia Stirton 1-4 1-3 3, Kabri Emerson 1-4 0-0 2, Hannah Love 3-4 2-4 10, Mollie Kramer 3-3 0-0 7, Aimee Durbidge 1-6 2-4 4, Danika Johnson 1-5 0-0 2, Jansen Butler 0-0 0-0 0, Tori Davenport 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-49 9-15 53.

SOUTHERN IDAHO

Patrice Toston 7-18 8-11 22, Adriana Dent 2-9 6-6 10, Candace Prestwich 3-5 0-0 9, Megan Tanner 0-1 0-0 0, Jessy Saint-Felix 0-3 0-0 0, Sarah Viehweg 4-6 3-4 11, Julia Duferrena 5-10 0-0 10, Stephanie Toumson 1-1 0-0 2, Cassidy Skidmore 0-3 0-0 0, Elodie Roussas 0-1 0-0 0, Rai Franklin 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 22-58 17-21 64.

Halftime — CSI 27-21. 3-point goals — NIC 4-10 (Woods 2-5, Buskey 0-3, Love 1-1, Kramer 1-1), CSI 3-9 (Toston 0-2, Prestwich 3-5, Tanner 0-1, Franklin 0-1). Rebounds — NIC 30 (Mokrzycki 7), CSI 42 (Duferrena 14). Assists — NIC 6 (Stirton 4), CSI 9 (Dent 3). Team fouls — NIC 18, CSI 14. Fouled out — Buskey.

• MEN

North Idaho 69

Southern Idaho 56

TWIN FALLS — Mikey Hope scored 16 points off the bench to lead the 12th-ranked Cardinals past the Golden Eagles, giving men’s coach Jared Phay his 200th win.

“It feels good,” Phay said of the milestone. “It meant a lot to me because it meant a lot to the guys. I was proud of our effort tonight. I felt like we defended really well.”

Chris Sarbaugh had 12 points and three assists for NIC (25-4, 13-2 SWAC), which will be the No. 2 seed and faces the winner of the Snow/Colorado Northwestern game on Friday at 2 p.m. in the semifinals of the Region 18 tournament in Coeur d’Alene.

Jaysean Paige scored 21 points off the bench for CSI (19-11, 6-9), which faces Utah State-Eastern in the first round of the Region 18 tournament on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.

CSI blacked out the gym on Saturday, wearing their road dark jerseys and giving away 2,500 black shirts before the game.

“It was actually a cool environment,” Phay said. “There were times when the guys couldn’t hear me and I had to draw things on the blackboard.”

NIC took all three from CSI during conference play, two of those wins coming in Twin Falls.

NORTH IDAHO

Jordan McCloud 1-3 2-4 4, Keon Lewis 3-9 1-1 8, Jalil Abdul-Bassit 3-11 4-5 11, Chris Sarbaugh 5-8 0-2 12, Kaj Sherman 2-5 1-2 5, Michael Middlebrooks 1-4 0-0 2, Mikey Hope 5-8 4-4 16, James Webb 1-2 2-4 4, Cole Luckett 1-2 0-0 3, Nathan Rathbun 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 24-54 14-22 69.

SOUTHERN IDAHO

Montigo Alford 3-8 2-2 9, James Reid 0-3 0-0 0, Kareem Storey 3-8 2-2 8, Juwan Newman 1-2 1-2 3, Billy Reader 3-8 4-9 10, Darius Johnson 0-2 1-2 1, Trevor Ritchie 0-0 0-0 0, Sebastien Michineau 2-3 0-0 4, Detwon Rogers 0-4 0-0 0, Kennedy Esume 0-1 0-2 0, Jaysean Paige 8-15 0-1 21. Totals 20-54 10-20 56.

Halftime — NIC 30-19. 3-point goals — NIC 7-15 (McCloud 0-1, Lewis 1-2, Abdul-Bassit 1-4, Sarbaugh 2-4, Hope 2-3, Luckett 1-1), CSI 6-18 (Alford 1-2, Reid 0-3, Johnson 0-1, Michineau 0-1, Rogers 0-3, Paige 5-8). Rebounds — NIC 41 (Sherman, Middlebrooks 7), CSI 33 (Newman 9). Assists — NIC 9 (Sarbaugh 3), CSI 9 (Storey 6). Team fouls — NIC 17, CSI 21. Fouled out — none.