NIC men notch narrow win in Region 18 tourney opener

| February 28, 2014 8:00 PM

EPHRAIM, Utah - It was a bit of a struggle on offense, but defensively, the North Idaho College men's basketball team did enough to win its Region 18 tournament opener on Thursday on the campus of Snow College.

Shikei Blake scored 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting and had six rebounds and three steals for the third-seeded Cardinals in a 58-53 win against the sixth-seeded Colorado Northwestern Spartans.

"Shikei was big for us with a lot of buckets inside and a lot of boards," NIC coach Jared Phay said. "He was probably our best player of the game."

NIC finished 20 of 52 from the field, but held Colorado Northwestern to 18 of 62 - including a 7-for-27 effort in the first half.

"It was a good defensive effort on our part," Phay said. "We struggled hitting shots, but it was a grind out win for us."

Braxton Tucker had 10 points and six rebounds for NIC (21-10), which faces second-seeded Salt Lake (24-6) today at 1 p.m. PST.

Salt Lake won all three matchups between the two during the regular season, beating NIC 66-64 on Jan. 4 and 72-59 on Feb. 13 in Coeur d'Alene and 85-82 in Salt Lake City on Jan. 23. The Bruins won last year's regional tournament in Coeur d'Alene.

"It was good to get the tournament jitters out of the way and get into the groove," Phay said. "But we need to play a lot better tomorrow if we're going to beat Salt Lake."

Leonard Hurst had 11 points and seven rebounds for Colorado Northwestern, which finishes 8-22.

Also Thursday, Jaleni Neely had 20 points and six assists to lead fourth-seeded Utah State-Eastern (21-9) past Snow (15-15). Utah State-Eastern plays No. 1 seed Southern Idaho (26-4) tonight at 6:30 PST.

COLORADO NORTHWESTERN

RayJon Craig 4-7 1-2 9, Ivan Sifuentes 1-1 0-0 3, Jay Bradley 1-6 2-2 5, Leonard Hurst 4-8 3-6 11, Brandon Pasker 2-12 3-5 7, Kevin Greene 1-6 2-2 4, Terrylee Wedgeworth 2-7 2-2 6, Chris Spotser 0-5 0-0 0, Cole Carpenter 0-2 0-0 0, Adrian Williams 2-3 0-0 6, William Van Deren 0-1 0-1 0. Totals 18-62 13-21 53.

NORTH IDAHO

Braxton Tucker 3-7 4-5 10, Brad Wallace 1-6 0-0 2, Bryce Leavitt 2-4 1-3 6, Nathan Rathbun 0-1 0-0 0, Jordan King 3-7 0- 8, Jason Wheelock 0-0 0-0 0, Will Dorsey 2-7 3-5 7, Cole Kesler 1-6 2-2 5, Fuquan Niles 1-3 0-0 2, Tatafu Nuku 1-2 0-1 2, Shikei Blake 6-8 4-8 16, Ty Higbie 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-52 14-26 58.

Halftime - NIC 30-20. 3-point goals - CNCC 4-20 (Craig 0-1, Sifuentes 1-1, Bradley 1-4, Hurst 0-1, Greene 0-5, Wedgeworth 0-3, Johnson 0-1, Carpenter 0-1, Williams 2-3), NIC 4-20 (Wallace 0-5, Leavitt 1-2, King 2-4, Dorsey 0-3, Kesler 1-6). Rebounds - CNCC 40 (Pasker 13), NIC 42 (Rathbun, Niles 8). Assists - CNCC 13 (Greene 5), NIC 7 (Leavitt 4). Team fouls - CNCC 25, NIC 19. Fouled out - Hurst, Blake.