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COEUR d'ALENE - There's nothing like being in your home gymnasium to make a player feel more comfortable.

For both the NIC men's and women's basketball teams, comfort was key in their Scenic West Athletic Conference wins against the visiting Utah State-Eastern Golden Eagles on Thursday night.

Jalil Abdul-Bassit, a 6-foot-4 sophomore wing, scored a game-high 24 points to lead the 14th-ranked Cardinals (18-3, 5-1 SWAC) past the Golden Eagles (11-9, 2-4) 71-44 at Rolly Williams Court.

"He was big for us tonight," NIC men's coach Jared Phay said. "He's taken some big shots for us at the end of some big games lately. He'd been in a bit of a shooting slump, but did what he had to do and got himself out of it."

Earlier, sophomore Mollie Kramer scored a career-high 14 points to lead the second-ranked Cardinals (20-1, 5-1 SWAC) past the Golden Eagles (5-13, 2-4) 67-49.

"Mollie definitely had the best game she's had since she's been here," NIC women's coach Chris Carlson said. "She had a couple good ones last year, but really got it rolling tonight. She hit some drives and some nice shots."

NIC will host Colorado Northwestern on Saturday, starting with the women’s game at 3 p.m. and men’s at 5.

MEN: After taking a 29-22 halftime lead, NIC outscored Utah State-Eastern 42-22 in the second half — shooting 63.6 percent from the field on 14 of 22 shots.

“We came out and switched our defense a little bit in the second half,” Abdul-Bassit said. “Coach Phay just said we needed to have a better second half than our first.”

Abdul-Bassit added that he’s getting comfortable again on the court after playing in limited time last year at Monroe College.

“It’s been a learning experience all season,” Abdul-Bassit said. “The coaching staff has been helping me with the transition. I didn’t get a lot of time last year and have been working all summer and feel much better now. Hopefully it leads to better games and we keep moving on.”

Keon Lewis scored 10 points and Michael Middlebrooks blocked four shots for NIC.

“We want to be balanced and I think it makes us more difficult to scout,” Phay said. “Guys are really unselfish and they showed it again tonight. Mike Middlebrooks might be the best in the country at blocking shots and James Webb does a good job of it also.”

Jason Timpf had 16 points and 10 rebounds for Utah State-Eastern, which played without starting point guard Travon Langston, who missed the game due to injury.

“Both offensively and defensively, we need to do a better job,” Utah State-Eastern coach Adjalma Becheli said. “We were short our point guard, and that’s hurting us really bad right now, but I need to do a better job of managing that. We played a really good, athletic team in North Idaho. I think them and Salt Lake are the two best teams in our conference.”

Southern Idaho (14-6, 2-4) beat Colorado Northwestern (7-14, 0-6) 93-53 at Twin Falls in the other SWAC game on Thursday.

UTAH STATE-EASTERN

Jeff Perkins 3-9 0-0 8, Miles Gatewood 2-9 1-4 5, AL Hadzisehovic 0-0 1-2 1, Jason Timpf 7-13 0-2 16, Dytanya Johnson 1-8 0-0 2, Broderick Day 0-0 0-0 0, Michael Stroud 3-5 3-4 10, Igor Dias 0-1 0-0 0, Todd Helgeson 1-6 0-0 2. Totals 17-51 5-12 44.

NORTH IDAHO

Jordan McCloud 1-2 1-2 3, Jalil Abdul-Bassit 9-17 2-2 24, Chris Sarbaugh 1-5 0-2 2, Jason Wheelock 0-1 0-0 0, Drae Hildreth 0-1 0-0 0, Andrew Baracco 1-1 0-0 2, Keon Lewis 3-7 4-6 10, Michael Middlebrooks 2-2 2-2 6, Dalen Erickson 0-1 0-0 0, James Webb 3-4 2-2 9, Cole Luckett 4-6 0-0 9, Nathan Rathbun 1-1 0-0 2, Kaj Sherman 1-2 2-2 4. Totals 26-50 13-18 71.

Halftime — NIC 29-22. 3-point goals — USUE 5-16 (Perkins 2-4, Timpf 2-6, Stroud 1-2, Dias 0-1), NIC 6-17 (Abdul-Bassit 4-9, Sarbaugh 0-2, Wheelock 0-1, Lewis 0-2, Erickson 0-1, Webb 1-1, Luckett 1-1). Rebounds — USUE 30 (Timpf 10), NIC 33 (Webb 8). Assists — USUE 6 (Johnson 2), NIC 6 (Lewis 3). Team fouls — USUE 18, NIC 12. Fouled out — none.

WOMEN: The Cardinals, who held the Golden Eagles to 15 of 48 shooting from the floor, had three players in double figures with Danika Johnson scoring 12 points — 10 in the first half — and Kabri Emerson 10.

“Danika really came out and set the tone on how we wanted to play the game in the first half,” Carlson said. “She really got it going pounding the boards, scoring and running the floor.”

Kramer shot 6 of 10 from the floor, also grabbing five rebounds.

“It was a really good game for us,” Kramer said. “We had a stretch where we were forcing turnovers and just playing really well. We were watching film and saw there were a lot of gaps you could shoot and drive from against them. The one thing our coach teaches us is that if you get the ball, to have a shooter’s mentality and a scorer’s mentality — and that’s what was on my mind tonight.”

Amy Arbon led Utah State-Eastern with 20 points.

“It was very disappointing for us,” Utah State-Eastern coach Dave Paur said. “North Idaho did a great job of controlling the tempo of this game. They came out and pressed us, and for us to be effective, we need to take 80 shots a game. The most we’ve taken is 97 this season, but to have (48) tonight — we can’t beat anybody, shooting that many — especially shooting 17 percent from the floor. If a team puts us in a half-court set, we’re going to lose. We need to shoot the ball in three touches for us to be effective, and they did a good job of taking it away from us tonight.”

NIC — playing its first home game since Dec. 20 — had 21 turnovers, compared to 15 for Utah State-Eastern.

“It’s nice to get back home,” Carlson said. “Some coaches will say there’s a lot of distractions out there. Eastern came out hard on us tonight, but we responded. Our bench responded and our depth responded. I was very pleased. We knew they were going to attack us out there, but I think we can cut down on half those (turnovers).”

Southern Idaho (10-10, 4-2) avenged an early-season loss to Colorado Northwestern (12-9, 1-5), winning 75-48 at Twin Falls on Thursday.

UTAH STATE-EASTERN

Hailee Parry 1-7 0-0 2, Gabriela Borges 5-11 1-2 16, Kathleen Collette 0-1, 2-3 2, Amy Arbon 7-16 3-4 20, Brooke Slade 0-2 0-0 0, Harley Earl 0-0 0-0 0, Shantaya Strebel 0-0 1-2 1, Sarah Fletcher 0-0 0-0 0, Rachel Scoggins 0-1 0-0 0, Isabela Costa 0-3 1-2 1, Abby Call 1-6 0-0 3, Tandy Thackeray 1-1 2-2 4, Faith Garrish 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 15-48 10-15 49.

NORTH IDAHO

Angela Woods 1-6 0-0 2, Katie Buskey 2-4 0-0 5, Kabri Emerson 3-3 4-4 10, Georgia Stirton 1-3 3-4 5, Hannah Love 1-3 5-8 7, Jansen Butler 0-0 0-0 0, Tori Davenport 1-4 0-0 2, Aimee Durbidge 3-6 2-4 8, Renae Mokrzycki 1-1 0-0 2, Mollie Kramer 6-10 1-1 14, Danika Johnson 5-8 2-4 12, Maggie Kirscher 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-49 17-25 67.

Halftime — NIC 38-21. 3-point goals — USUE 9-14 (Parry 0-1, Borges 5-5, Collette 0-1, Arbon 3-4, Scoggins 0-1, Costa 0-3, Call 1-6, Thackeray 1-1), NIC 2-11 (Woods 0-4, Buskey 1-2, Davenport 0-2, Durbidge 0-1, Kramer 1-2). Rebounds — USUE 19 (Collette 4), NIC 38 (Durbidge 8). Assists — USUE 8 (Parry 4), NIC 6 (Davenport 3). Team fouls — USUE 20, NIC 15. Fouled out — none.