REGION 18 BASKETBALL TOURNAMENTS: King leads Cardinal men into semifinals
PRICE, Utah - Sophomore Jordan King scored on a layup with 13 seconds remaining, and the third-seeded North Idaho Cardinals held on late to beat the sixth-seeded Utah State-Eastern Golden Eagles 76-74 in the opening round of the Region 18 tournament on Thursday at USU-Eastern.
NIC rallied from a 14-point deficit with under nine minutes remaining, regaining the lead on a 3-pointer by Kyle Guice to take a 74-71 lead with a minute remaining. Utah State-Eastern tied it on its next trip down the court, setting up King's eventual game-winner.
"It was quite a grind," NIC coach Corey Symons said. "We jumped out on them in the first five minutes, and then they went on a run and we didn't get the lead back until a minute left."
Jamaal Robateau scored 19 points on 11-of-12 free-throw shooting, and Austin Pope scored 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting for NIC (22-7), which faces second-seeded Salt Lake (25-5) in the semifinals today at 2 PST.
Utah State-Eastern finished 11-17.
NIC trailed 41-36 at halftime.
"We came out with a lot of energy," Symons said. "Once they came back, we started to play a little scared and timid. We had to waste some timeouts to get calmed down, they were getting frustrated and frustrated with us. But we came out and fought back in the second half and made some plays when we needed to."
NORTH IDAHO
Jamaal Robateau 3-12 11-12 19, Braian Angola-Rodas 6-17 0-3 12, Fuquan Niles 1-1 1-4 3, Kyle Guice 2-4 2-2 7, Austin Pope 7-15 1-1 17, Lucas Antunez 1-1 2-4 4, Marcus Harris 0-1 0-0 0, D'Adrian Allen 0-1 1-2 1, Jordan King 4-5 4-8 13, Charlie Lockwood 0-1 0-0 0, Ty Higbie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-58 22-36 76.
UTAH STATE-EASTERN
Juwan Moody 1-8 0-0 3, Sherman Daye 4-4 1-4 9, Phillip Winston 0-1 2-6 2, Royale Ewing 4-6 1-4 9, Marcelo Ruediguer 3-4 1-2 7, Andre Hogan 3-8 5-6 14, Nathaniel Wright 2-2 0-2 4, Brandon Sly 3-4 1-2 10, Hamdi Karoui 0-1 0-1 0, Josh Van Weezep 4-10 0-0 12, Chol Kiir 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 25-49 13-29 74.
Halftime - USUE 41-36. 3-point goals - NIC 6-19 (Robateau 2-8, Angola-Rodas 0-2, Guice 1-3, Pope 2-5, King 1-1), USUE 11-25 (Moody 1-7, Hogan 3-5, Sly 3-3, Van Weezep 4-9). Rebounds - NIC 29 (Robateau 8), USUE 43 (Daye 10). Assists - NIC 11 (Angola-Rodas, Pope 3), USUE 18 (Moody 5). Team fouls - NIC 22, USUE 27. Fouled out - Niles. Technical fouls - Ruediguer.
REGION 18 MEN'S TOURNAMENT
At Price, Utah
Thursday's Games
North Idaho 76, Utah State-Eastern 74
Snow 81, Colorado Northwestern 43
Friday's Games
Game 6 - No. 2 Salt Lake (25-5) vs. No. 3 North Idaho (23-7), 2 p.m.
Game 8 - No. 1 Southern Idaho (28-2) vs. No. 4 Snow (18-13), 6:30 p.m.
Saturday
Game 10 - Winner Game 6 vs. Winner Game 8, 6:30 p.m.
* WOMEN
Utah State-Eastern 66
North Idaho 58
PRICE, Utah - Bryanna Adams scored a game-high 24 points as the fourth-seeded Golden Eagles beat the fifth-seeded Cardinals in the opening round.
Monica Landdeck scored 20 points and Mariah Swanson added 17 for NIC, which finished 19-13.
Utah State-Eastern (20-9) advances to face top-seeded Salt Lake (25-5) in a semifinal game today at 4:30 p.m. PST.
Earlier, third-seeded Snow (21-8) romped past sixth-seed Colorado Northwestern 82-44 to advance to play second-seeded Southern Idaho (19-11) today at 11 a.m
REGION 18 WOMEN'S TOURNAMENT
At Price, Utah
Thursday's Games
Snow 82, Colorado Northwestern 44
Utah State-Eastern 66, North Idaho 58
Friday's Games
Game 5 - No. 2 Southern Idaho (19-11) vs. No. 3 Snow (21-8), 11 a.m.
Game 7 - No. 1 Salt Lake (25-5) vs. No. 4 Utah State-Eastern 58, 4:30 p.m.
Saturday
Game 9 - Winner Game 5 vs. Winner Game 7, 4 p.m.