THE FRONT ROW with BRUCE BOURQUIN, Jan. 30, 2015

The most impressive thing about North Idaho College sophomore shooting guard Kara Staggs' game may not be the fact the team captain led the Scenic West Athletic Conference entering this week's games with 16.4 points per game, including 18.8 per game in conference play.

Or the 5-foot-7 Cardinal from Omak, Wash., a town with a population of 4,856, located some 90 miles north of Wenatchee, entered this week's play shooting 84.7 percent from the free-throw line, good for second in the SWAC and the fact she had shot a team-high 126 free throw attempts, nearly twice as much as anyone else on her team.

Check that with the fact she had a team-leading 32 steals, or 1.5 per game, for NIC (17-8, 4-5) and was sixth in the conference with 3.1 assists per game.

No, look beyond the numbers. Something you can't necessarily measure statistically.

The word of the day, boys and girls, is toughness.

THE DATE was Dec. 13, as NIC played at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. With a little less than 10 minutes left in the game, an 87-77 NIC loss, Staggs and a CSI player went nearly full-speed for a loose ball.

"She went for the ball and just had a head-on collision down there and we lost her for a little while, for about five minutes of the game," Cardinals coach Chris Carlson said. "She had 23 points, hit five threes and it was a close game down the stretch. They ran into each other, the CSI kid did a flip all over Kara and Kara got her head whacked and her neck jammed and we lost her there and lost a little momentum. All of a sudden (after she was briefly out), there she was back on the bench. She got drilled and we watched that on the highlight film a couple times.

But that's what Kara Staggs is about. When we lost her, that's when CSI pulled away. She was sacrificing herself and she lays it all on the line, she was relentless. It happened again (Jan. 10) at Snow, she just went right into the scrum and it was a head-on with one of their kids. She was down for a while. If you watch a game, Kara Staggs will be on the floor four or five times a game. "

Staggs remembered the incident at CSI fairly well.

"It was just a really hard hit," Staggs said. "I was sore after it with a pretty big knot on my head. It took me out at the end of the game and when I came back in, I just couldn't really get it going again."

But Staggs has gotten it going this season. At that game against Snow, she scored a season-high 32 points in a 76-74 win at Ephraim, Utah.

Staggs said she'd prefer to attend college in either California or somewhere in the western United States and has been looking at Cal Poly Pomona in southern California.

"She's a Division II type of player," Carlson said. "Some D-I teams may take her, because she's so competitive. She's a great defender, does everything well, has a lot of basketball smarts. She leads our team with her grit."

JENI BOESEL was a second-team NJCAA All-American back in 2005, one of Carlson's first seasons. Her uncle is Bryan Boesel, who was Staggs' head coach at Okanogan High, a school with an enrollment of 268.

Jeni Boesel went on to play at Idaho State. Staggs' assistant coach all four of her years there was her father, Marty Staggs.

"They play a lot alike," Carlson said about Staggs and Boesel. "Bryan called us about this player. She verbaled to us early during her senior year. Kara is a winner, she competes for everything. She takes charges, she knocks down deep 3s, she gets 'And-ones' (a basket plus a free-throw attempt)."

Staggs went on to become the MVP of the Washington state 1A tournament, as the Bulldogs upset two-time defending champion Freeman.

"That was easily my best memory," Staggs said. "We weren't first in our league, but we beat (league champion) Cashmere in districts, then they lost to Freeman. My dad worked on my shot a lot, I get shots off a lot quicker and my shooting's deeper, because it's not like I'll always be right on the 3-point line."

Staggs has created some memories of her own at NIC and she moved from the dorms as a freshman to a house on-campus with six other girls, including some teammates.

"This year, beating CSI (on Jan. 17 at home, 90-59)," Staggs said of a highlight. "We're doing way better."

As a freshman, playing with Australians Georgia Stirton and Renae Mokrzycki, Staggs found her way while adjusting to the speed of the college game.

"It's way faster; everyone can score," Staggs said. "With Georgia, it was nice, because she creates well, it opened me a lot easier. Renae drew so much attention, it left me wide open. I wasn't as aggressive last year like I am this year."

Carlson said Staggs has had it a little tougher this year but has thrived nonetheless.

"This year, people are keying on Kara and she'll still do well," Carlson said. "They'll put their best defender on her. Even if her scoring isn't there, she'll still get other ways to get things done."

Getting things done, either with a head-on collision or a big-time shot to help win games, is Staggs' calling card.

Bruce Bourquin is a sports writer at The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2013 or via e-mail at [email protected]