NIC men survive Snow in OT

COEUR d'ALENE - The North Idaho College men's basketball team nearly found themselves trapped at Rolly Williams Court by visiting Snow College on Thursday night.

But a steal and slam dunk by James Webb with 11 seconds remaining in regulation, and his free throws in the final minute of overtime, helped lift the 13th-ranked Cardinals past the Badgers 82-77 in a Scenic West Athletic Conference game.

"They just kept believing in each other," NIC men's basketball coach Jared Phay said. "We just kept guarding defensively and I'm really happy with our effort. Now we've got the big game on Saturday."

NIC (20-3, 7-1 SWAC) will face Salt Lake (19-2, 7-0) — which beat Southern Idaho 76-67 in other SWAC play on Thursday in Twin Falls.

Snow (15-6, 3-4) travels to CSI (15-7, 3-5) on Saturday.

Earlier, sophomore Katie Buskey scored 14 points as the second-ranked Cardinals (22-1, 7-1) rolled past the Badgers 81-50 heading into Saturday’s rematch with Salt Lake at 3 p.m.

Salt Lake handed NIC its only loss of the season 56-48 on Jan. 3 in Salt Lake City.

“I was more worried about it (overlooking Snow) than anything,” NIC women’s coach Chris Carlson said. “We didn’t want to start thinking about them before this game. I know they’re excited to play them (Salt Lake) again, but I’m happy to get a win tonight.”

In other SWAC women’s action, Southern Idaho (12-10, 6-2) beat Salt Lake (13-7, 4-3) 69-68 in overtime in Twin Falls.

MEN: After battling back and forth through the first half, NIC took a 27-26 lead on a 3-pointer by Jalil Abdul-Bassit and stretched the advantage to 38-30 at halftime.

Snow took the lead for the first time in the second half on a basket by Cheikh Tidiane Sane to give the Badgers a 69-67 lead with 2:15 remaining. Another basket by Sane gave Snow a 71-67 lead before the Cardinals scored the final four points of regulation — with Webb’s dunk sending the game to overtime.

“We were going to come out and not let them catch anything easy toward the goal,” Webb said. “We came out at half court and got the steal and I finished the play. We had to grind it out tonight. It was a big win for us and now we’ve got to come in and beat Salt Lake.”

After falling behind 76-71 to start overtime, NIC rallied to tie it on free throws by Abdul-Bassit with 52.8 seconds remaining. NIC regained the lead with 24.2 remaining as Webb hit two free throws after being intentionally fouled by Snow point guard Nick Gruninger. Keon Lewis capped the scoring with two free throws with 11 seconds remaining.

“James was huge for us tonight,” Phay said. “Knocking down those free throws was big. Gruninger was playing well and hitting some tough shots, so it was tough to defend him. We started to guard the ball screen a little better and get some steals. I’m proud of the guys’ effort. We kept fighting. Even when we got down, we just kept fighting.”

Abdul-Bassit finished with 28 points, including 13 of 13 from the foul line — 11 of them coming in the second half and overtime.

Connor Van Brocklin, a 6-5 sophomore guard/forward who scored 35 points for Snow against NIC in the first meeting, was held to 10 points on 4-of-13 shooting.

“I thought Keon Lewis did a good job of defending him,” Phay said. “Keon’s a big strong guard and played him pretty physical. Even when he hit the first 3-pointer to start overtime, it was a concern, but Keon did a great job overall.”

Sane had 25 points and 10 rebounds for Snow.

“It was a battle,” Snow coach Robert Nielson said. “It was a good battle. We missed some shots and they made some shots. They’re pretty good players and defended really well. They were focusing on Connor and making sure he wasn’t going to get some shots and it opened some things inside for us.”

SNOW COLLEGE

Nick Gruninger 7-13 5-6 21, Casey Taylor 1-1 0-0 2, Cheikh Tidiane Sane 11-18 3-5 25, Haudrick Hilarie 1-3 0-0 3, Roberts Baltruns 0-1 0-0 0, London Simonsen 1-4 0-0 3, Connor Van Brocklin 4-13 0-0 10, Brock Smith 4-6 1-1 9, Brad Mears 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 31-62 9-12 77.

NORTH IDAHO

Jalil Abdul-Bassit 6-19 13-13 28, Chris Sarbaugh 4-6 0-0 9, Keon Lewis 3-9 6-6 13, Michael Middlebrooks 3-4 0-2 6, Mikey Hope 0-2 3-4 3, James Webb 3-5 5-6 12, Cole Luckett 0-3 0-0 0, Nathan Rathbun 0-0 0-0 0, Kaj Sherman 4-7 3-5 11. Totals 23-55 30-36 82.

Halftime — NIC 38-30. Regulation — 71-71. 3-point goals — Snow 6-15 (Gruninger 2-5, Hiliare 1-2, Baltruns 0-1, Simonsen 1-4, Van Brocklin 2-3), NIC 6-23 (Abdul-Bassit 3-13, Sarbaugh 1-3, Lewis 1-3, Hope 0-1, Webb 1-1, Luckett 0-2). Rebounds — Snow 32 (Sane 10), NIC 36 (Sherman 11). Assists — Snow 10 (Gruninger 4), NIC 7 (Sarbaugh, Middlebrooks 2). Team fouls — Snow 24, NIC 15. Fouled out — Gruninger. Technical fouls — Sane.

WOMEN: NIC forced 21 turnovers and held Snow (8-13, 2-5) to 17-of-50 shooting for the game.

“Our defense has been rock solid all season,” Carlson said. “We’ve been holding teams to 50 points (a game). I think she (Snow coach Natalie Visger) has been looking for some consistency with their scoring, but our defense has just been awesome all year.”

Lyssa Hanks was the only Snow player in double figures with 10 points.

“They do a nice job with their extended 2-3 zone,” Visger said of NIC. “They took away some easy shots for us, but we didn’t take good shots and had trouble getting the ball inside. We’ve been struggling like that for a while and we just need someone to pick it up and make some shots.”

Snow — which won the Region 18 tournament last year — has only one returning starter and 11 newcomers to the program.

“We’ve got a lot of new faces this year,” Visger said. “It’s a rebuilding season for sure. We’ll take this and get better from it.”

For Buskey, Thursday was the end of a self-described shooting slump.

“I’ve been in a slump for a while,” Buskey said. “The team just pushed the tempo tonight and we’ve been working on playing strong throughout the game. It definitely helps with my confidence to get a few to drop in early on.”

Georgia Stirton had eight points and six assists for NIC, which finished with 17 as a team.

SNOW COLLEGE

Becca Rees 1-5 0-0 3, Amber Daly 3-8 1-2 7, Courtnie Duncan 0-4 2-2 2, Jordi Wilden 1-1 0-0 2, Vika Havili 1-2 0-0 2, Kiz Farrer 1-6 1-2 3, Tristin Bowers 2-2 0-1 4, Sydney Webb 0-6 3-4 3, Hailey Larsen 1-4 3-3 5, Kobe Farrer 1-3 0-0 3, Emily Howey 3-4 0-0 6, Lyssa Hanks 3-5 4-6 10. Totals 17-50 14-20 50.

NORTH IDAHO

Angela Woods 2-7 0-0 8, Katie Buskey 5-10 1-2 14, Kabri Emerson 4-6 2-4 10, Georgia Stirton 3-5 2-2 8, Hannah Love 2-6 0-0 4, Jansen Butler 0-0 0-0 0, Tori Davenport 1-3 2-2 4, Aimee Durbidge 4-5 4-4 13, Renae Mokrzycki 1-5 3-4 5, Mollie Kramer 0-1 3-4 3, Danika Johnson 2-6 2-4 8, Maggie Kirscher 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 28-56 19-26 81.

Halftime — NIC 43-18. 3-point goals — Snow 2-9 (Rees 1-3, Daly 0-1, Duncan 0-2, Farrer 1-3), NIC 6-15 (Woods 2-5, Buskey 3-6, Emerson 0-1, Davenport 0-2, Durbidge 1-1). Rebounds — Snow 25 (Wilden 6), NIC 31 (Johnson 8). Assists — Snow 10 (Daly 3), NIC 17 (Stirton 6). Team fouls — Snow 19, NIC 15. Fouled out — none.