NIC basketball: Rodas sparks Cardinal men
YUMA, Ariz. — Braian Angola Rodas poured in 35 points as the North Idaho College men’s basketball team beat the South Mountain Community College Cougars of Phoenix 85-81 on Thursday, the first of three games in three days the Cardinals will play at Arizona Western.
Brayon (BJ) Blake scored all 19 of his points in the second half for NIC (2-0).
“Braian played really well,” NIC coach Corey Symons said. “Brayon got in foul trouble in the first half, only played three minutes. Braian had to step it up.”
Rodas scored 18 of his points in the first half. He also finished with six rebounds.
“We did a good job attacking the basket,” Symons said. “We did a good job taking care of the ball. What got us the lead was sharing the basketball.”
NIC led 81-60 with roughly five minutes left. The Cougars cut it to two, helped by the Cardinals missing the front end of three one-and-ones, and had the ball with nine seconds left. But Rodas stole the inbounds pass, got fouled and sank two free throws to ice the game.
“We got the win, but we got some good teaching and coaching moments,” Symons said. “We let off the gas; we have to learn to put teams away.”
NIC plays Eastern Arizona today at 1 p.m. PST.
NORTH IDAHO
Sam Dowd 2-5 2-2 6, Lucan Antunez 3-7 0-1 6, Haywood Irwin 1-3 0-0 2, Trey Burch-Manning 2-3 2-3 7, Brayon Blake 9-17 0-3 19, Braian Angola Rodas 13-19 5-8 35, Kaleb Warner 3-5 0-0 7, Kyle Guice 1-8 0-0 3, Zaequan Satterthwaite 0-2 0-0 0, Scott Turner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-69 9-17 85.
SOUTH MOUNTAIN
Desmond Johnson 4-6 0-0 9, Nathan Henderson 0-0 0-0 0, Dominique Martinez 1-1 0-0 4, Jackson Price 5-10 2-2 15, Terrence Johnson 2-8 2-2 8, Christian Hakilimali 5-8 4-5 16, Isiah Bolden 4-8 0-0 8, Jamarius Clairborne 1-2 0-2 3, Gavin Wood 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Simpson 2-6 2-2 6, Conner MacDougall 4-6 4-6 12. Totals 29-58 14-19 81.
Halftime — NIC 44-34. 3-point goals — NIC 8-21 (Antunez 0-2, Irwin 0-1, Burch-Manning 1-1, Blake 1-3, Rodas 4-7, Warner 1-2, Guice 1-5), SM 9-21 (D. Johnson 1-1, Price 3-6, T. Johnson 2-5, Hakilimali 2-3, Bolden 0-4, Clairborne 1-2). Rebounds — NIC 28 (Rodas 6), SM 40 (MacDougall 11). Assists — NIC 16 (Antunez 5), SM 8 (Henderson 3). Fouled out — none. Total fouls — NIC 21, SM 20.