Cardinals getting back to business

It might seem like they've been on a weeklong vacation, but that will end tonight for the top-ranked North Idaho College women's basketball team.

NIC improved to 17-0 on the season with a 65-43 win against Centralia in the Lower Columbia Holiday Classic championship game last Sunday in Longview, Wash.

Instead of returning to Coeur d'Alene, NIC - 2-0 in the SWAC - continued on to Salt Lake City for their Scenic West Athletic Conference game against the Bruins (9-5, 0-1) tonight at 4:30 p.m. PST.

"It's been great," NIC women's coach Chris Carlson said. "There's no classes to worry about and the players are ready to get back to business. They're a very focused team right now."

Meanwhile, the NIC men - also 2-0 in conference - fell to 15-2 after the Cardinals were upset by Treasure Valley 90-84 at Rolly Williams Court last Friday.

"Hopefully we've learned that we've got to show up each game," NIC men's coach Jared Phay said. "No matter who we're playing, we need to keep working hard and not get content with where we are."

The NIC men and women both travel to Ephraim on Saturday to play the Snow Badgers (7-8, 0-1, women; 12-3, 0-1, men).

“From this point on, to me, this is what it’s all about,” Carlson said. “The SWAC is a great conference to compete in. It’s great competition and we’re excited to be playing this time of year. Everything you work for, hopefully in January and February, you’re ready to peak. This trip is one of the toughest on our schedule and we think we know what we need to do. We took yesterday (Tuesday) off and are back to work now. It just feels good to be down here and get ready to brawl with Salt Lake.”

WOMEN: Renae Mokrzycki was named MVP of the tournament after finishing with 36 points and 33 rebounds in three games for NIC. Angela Woods was also selected to the all-tournament team after scoring 20 points in the championship game against Centralia and getting a team-high five steals and five assists against Blue Mountain on Friday.

“Renae had two huge games to get us jump started in the tournament,” Carlson said. “She came off the bench in both those games, so there was no way we could keep her on the bench at that point. In the third game, Angela just stepped up and has been doing that a lot. We played a tough, good Centralia team that tried to press us a lot and Angela was able to burn them on the back side. It kind of reminded me of Kama Griffitts at nationals.”

Defensively, NIC held its opponents to 43 points a game, while averaging 70.

“We played some nice defense in that tournament,” Carlson said. “We set some goals just before Christmas break and we’ve definitely achieved them. I think the girls are really focused on playing good team defense and getting better. A lot of what we do (on offense) starts with our defense.”

Salt Lake enters tonight’s game 9-5, 0-1.

“Rachel Morris (a 6-foot-4 transfer from Utah) is someone we’ve got to keep in check,” Carlson said. “Katie Richens got a lot of time last year as a freshman and has really stepped up in her role this year. (Natalie) Parsons can shoot it off the bench. If we can defend and be aggressive, we’ll give ourselves a chance to get a ‘W.’”

MEN: Salt Lake (13-2, 1-0), which trails NIC by a half-game for the lead in the SWAC, beat No. 2 Howard in a holiday tournament last Friday.

“They’re playing really well right now,” Phay said. “They’re a very talented team.”

Among the Bruins roster are Gary Payton II — son of former Seattle SuperSonic and Oregon State standout Gary Payton, and Tyrell Corbin — son of Tyrone Corbin, the current coach of the Utah Jazz.

“It’s weird going over what they do and coming across those names,” Phay said. “They’re very talented players and very unselfish. But yeah, they’re good.”

Practices leading up to the game have been intense according to Phay, whose team has the top scoring offense (91.4 points) and defense (63.1) in the SWAC.

“They’ve been really good,” Phay said. “Everyone has been really focused and it was a good wake-up call for us.”

Against Snow, Phay added that the Badgers will have four talented shooters on the floor at any given time.

“We’ll need to guard the perimeter and hope they miss a few,” Phay said.

Snow (12-3, 0-1) is ranked 20th in the most recent NJCAA poll.