NIC BASKETBALL: Rivalry highs, lows
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press North Idaho College’s Maci Benedict steals the ball from College of Southern Idaho’s Brianna Osorio during the first quarter Friday night in Coeur d’Alene.</p>
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press North Idaho College’s Kyle Guice sinks a three-point shot during the second half against College of Southern Idaho.</p>
<p>SHAWN GUST/Press NIC forward Shelby Cloninger beats CSI’s Kandiss Barber to save the ball from going out of bounds during the second quarter.</p>
COEUR d’ALENE — Rivalry games are one thing.
But this one has been a little special in the Coeur d’Alene and Twin Falls area for plenty of years.
Saturday’s installment of the annual North Idaho College-College of Southern Idaho rivarly on the basketball court was just another one of those nights.
In the men’s game, the 13th-ranked Cardinals used a 16-7 run at the end of the first half to pull away for a 103-83 win over the Golden Eagles.
“It was a big ballgame for us,” NIC coach Corey Symons said. “We’ve got a great group of guys and they played great and hard tonight. They worked their tails off and took care of the basketball tonight.”
NIC forced 12 turnovers and committed just four of its own, shooting 39 of 84 for the game.
“NIC is really good, and we knew that,” said CSI coach Jared Phay, the former NIC coach. “And they shot the ball really well tonight. I don’t care what kind of defense we had for Braian Angola-Rodas, when he’s hitting those 30-footers, there’s nothing you can do. Ton of credit to them. They’re playing good, team basketball and they just played really well.”
In the women’s game, CSI eventually closed out NIC, but it took a while.
A long while.
Sophomore guard Ma Kenzie VanSickle hit 1:13 remaining in the second overtime, helping the Golden Eagles beat the Cardinal women 87-83.
“Chris has a real nice team,” CSI coach Randy Rogers said. “They had some things going for them tonight. Neither team could make a free throw tonight. My kids competed hard and I told Chris after the game that between us and Salt Lake (the No. 1 team in the NJCAA in this week’s poll), anyone can beat anyone on any given night.”
Sophomore Monica Landdeck finsihed with 23 points and Grace Varcoe had 11 points and 17 rebounds for NIC (9-2), which plays at Utah State-Eastern on Thursday.
“We’ve had so many great battles with CSI,” NIC coach Chris Carlson said. “Double overtime, regional title games and it’s so much fun. Having the crowd into the game, it was a great environment.”
Both the NIC men’s and women’s team will be at Utah State-Eastern of Price, Utah, on Thursday.
MEN: BJ Blake, who has signed with Idaho, led the way offensively for NIC (13-0) with 33 points and 14 rebounds, followed by Haywood Irwin with 26 points and five rebounds and Braian Angola-Rodas with 20 points and seven rebounds.
“The guys just came out ready to play,” Symons said. “We were ready to play defense and just get after it tonight. They couldn’t hit some shots and didn’t shoot as great as they normally do, and we came out and hit some shots and played with some energy.”
CSI (9-4) played without Ar’Mond Davis — an Alabama committ — due to a suspension for undisclosed reasons. They were already missing Geno Artison, who tore his Achilles and will miss the remainder of the season.
“We are, but I think we found our identity tonight,” Phay said. “Lost Geno, and were going to press and run and do the same things we did last year, and I thought I saw some effort plays. We’ll get better. We’ll get Ar’Mond back next week, and he’ll really help us. I like where we’re headed.”
SOUTHERN IDAHO
Gloire Biongo 0-0 0-0 0, Shaq Carr 10-17 2-4 25, Pape Diatta 4-10 2-2 10, EJ Boyce 3-9 1-1 10, Marquis Godfrey 2-8 5-8 9, Quincy Taylor 3-7 4-5 11, UC Iroegbu 1-3 0-0 3, Con Bauer 2-5 0-0 6, Dakota Chambers 1-1 0-0 2, Austin Winegar 3-5 0-0 7. Totals 29-65 14-20 83.
NORTH IDAHO
Sam Dowd 0-0 0-0 0, Lucas Antunez 3-5 3-3 10, Haywood Irwin 10-16 2-2 26, Trey Burch-Manning 3-6 0-0 6, BJ Blake 13-23 4-6 33, Braian Angola-Rodas 7-18 2-2 20, Kaleb Warner 2-8 0-0 5, Kyle Guice 1-8 0-0 3, Scott Turner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 39-84 11-13 103.
Halftime — NIC 57-41. 3-point goals — CSI 11-27 (Carr 3-4, Diatta 0-4, Boyce 3-9, Taylor 1-3, Iroegbu 1-2, Bauer 2-4, Winegar 1-1), NIC 14-38 (Antunez 1-2, Irwin 4-8, Blake 3-4, Angola-Rodas 4-9, Warner 1-7, Guice 1-8). Rebounds — CSI 40 (Godrey 9), NIC 47 (Blake 14). Assists — CSI 10 (Carr 5), NIC 27 (Antunez, Guice 7). Team fouls — CSI 19, NIC 17. Fouled out — none. Technical fouls — CSI coach Jared Phay, Antunez.
WOMEN: NIC had a chance to close out the game in regulation, as well as the first overtime, but had shots come off the rim.
“The good thing is, and Randy said the same thing, is that they’re the fourth-ranked team in the nation and we were right there with them,” Carlson said. “It’s about learning from our mistakes and getting better. We’re going to learn a lot from that one.”
NIC (9-2) finished the game 12 of 21 from the foul line, and shot 4 for 19 in overtime.
NIC lost sophomore Stormee Van Belle in the fourth quarter after picking up her fifth foul.
“We weren’t at full strength out there tonight,” Carlson said. “We had some foul trouble. Grace and Monica played big for us. That was awesome for us. We missed Stormee. Shelby wasn’t herself, but I think we’ll be alright.”
Kandiss Barber, CSI’s leading scorer with 16.4 points per game, finished with 24 points and 13 rebounds. VanSickle, a product of Highland High in Pocatello, had seven points and three assists.
“Ma Kenzi was big for us down the stretch,” Rogers said. “Kandiss was starting to get tired and played for a long time with four fouls. Madi and Kandiss were key for us off the bench tonight. Anytime you can get two players to combine for 50 off the bench, that’s a good thing to have.”
After shooting 15 of 32 in the first half, NIC finished 15 of 52 the rest of the way.
“I’m proud of the girls,” Carlson said. “They competed super hard. We’ll be fine.”
SOUTHERN IDAHO
Kandiss Barber 9-22 5-12 24, Ma Kenzie VanSickle 3-10 1-2 7, Brianna Osorio 4-9 0-0 9, Tori Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Matti Ventling 8-12 1-2 21, Ruby Shreeve 0-2 0-0 0, Anna Joffresa 2-3 0-0 6, Ariel Augustine 0-0 0-0 0, Alexi Mefi 1-4 3-8 5, Samantha Lubcke 7-11 1-1 15. Totals 34-73 11-25 87.
NORTH IDAHO
Gracie Roberts 0-1 1-2 1, Maci Benedict 5-12 0-0 13, Alyssa Case 0-4 0-0 0, Shelby Cloninger 4-26 2-2 11, Monica Landdeck 8-16 3-5 23, Jocelyn Cook-Cox 5-8 1-4 13, Ebony Norman 1-3 1-2 3, Stormee Van Belle 4-8 0-0 9, Grace Varcoe 2-5 3-4 7, Charity Marlatt 1-1 1-2 3. Totals 83.
CSI 19 15 24 13 6 10 — 87
NIC 19 20 17 15 6 6 — 83
3-point goals — CSI 8-21 (Barber 1-1, VanSickle 0-7, Bilic 1-4, Ventling 4-5, Shreeve 0-1, Jofresa 2-3), NIC 11-39 (Benedict 3-7, Case 0-1, Cloninger 1-15, Landdeck 4-10, Cook-Cox 2-3, Van Belle 1-3). Rebounds — CSI 47 (Barber 13), NIC 55 (Varcoe 17). Assists — CSI 22 (Ventling 5), NIC 19 (Benedict, Van Belle 5). Team fouls — CSI 21, NIC 22. Fouled out — Osorio, Mefi, Cloninger, Van Belle).