THE FRONT ROW WITH JASON ELLIOTT: Wednesday, December 30, 2015
In case you’ve missed it, there’s a tournament going on at Rolly Williams Court this week.
And judging by the outcome of Monday’ game, the host North Idaho College men’s basketball team isn’t about to let anyone else take home the first Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational championship in the first season with college participants.
NIC RAN past Grays Harbor 135-75 in the opening round, getting contributions from everyone — everyone — in the game.
Five players reached double figures, including freshman Tony Naccarato of Coeur d’Alene High, who finished with four rebounds and a blocked shot in the game.
NIC also finished the night with 26 assists and 18 steals, showing they’re deserving of that 13th ranking in the NJCAA after being left off the preseason poll.
“We really like how we’re sharing the ball right now,” NIC coach Corey Symons said. “Everyone is really happy for each other and it doesn’t matter who it is, everyone is pulling for everyone.”
In that game, former NIC standout Michael Hale had the chance — in his first year as an assistant — to coach against his younger brother, Marcel, who scored 10 points in 25 minutes for Grays Harbor.
“They had a little fun with each other,” Symons said. “Before the game, Marcel came over and shook all of our hands but Mike’s. They had fun with each other all night.”
A little under the radar was the reunion of a pair of brothers from Lake City High, as Jason and Chris Wheelock shared the court for the North Idaho All-Star team, which lost 94-82 to Highline in an opening round game. The All-Stars had the deficit as low as two points midway through the second half on a team that also included former Lake City High standouts Mark Smyly and Nick Fromm.
Fromm, who went on to play at Lewis-Clark State, finished with 19 points, six rebounds and a steal in 32 minutes.
Regardless of how tonight’s championship game turns out — and it should be a good one — the Cardinals are playing good basketball.
Good enough to carry it onto the remainder of the Scenic West Athletic Conference season, regionals and, who knows from there.
WHATEVER YOU want to call that game between the Seattle Seahawks and St. Louis Rams last Sunday at CenturyLink Field, I’d call it a fiasco.
Granted, St. Louis always plays Seattle tough, evidence by the Week 1 win in St. Louis in overtime, as well as Sunday’s 23-17 win.
But Seattle, who clinched a playoff spot last week, played like a team that had taken its foot off the gas.
There was little energy for the first three quarters, and those plays that they’d been making in recent weeks, didn’t come.
St. Louis might not even return to its home as the Rams again, with rumors of them possibly going to Los Angeles.
Seattle, for the most part, is still the team that stumbled at home in Week 16 against Arizona in 2013, only to win its first Super Bowl in franchise history a few weeks later.
They won’t have the luxury of staying home this year, that flew out the window a long time ago with Carolina’s hunt for an unbeaten season and Arizona catching fire to win the NFC West.
But with Carolina losing, and Seattle getting a shot at Arizona again this weekend in Glendale, you just never know what might happen in the coming weeks.
Either way, it will be entertaining to see.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at jelliott@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.