Fast break done, for now for hoops teams
So much for that holiday break for area basketball teams.
Starting today, they’ll get back to the fast break and press breaks of playing the last of the nonleague and nonconference games for quite a while.
STARTING TODAY at North Idaho College, the Cardinal men’s basketball team will host the annual Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational tournament.
Among the other teams coming to town are Blue Mountain, Wenatchee Valley and Grays Harbor of the Northwest Athletic Conference that NIC joined at the start of the 2016-17 season.
Both Wenatchee Valley (3-6) and Blue Mountain (1-6) compete in the East Region of the NWAC, along with NIC, which enters the tournament 9-1 after going unbeaten at the Northwest College tournament in Powell, Wyo., Dec. 15-16.
Others in the tournament include Lethbridge College and Medicine Hat College, both of Alberta, Canada, as well as a team from Fairchild Air Force Base in Spokane and Elite Prep, a group of select high school players based in Issaquah, Wash.
Elite Prep point guard Trey Ary-Turner is rated as the 27th point guard in the West Region by ESPN. Guard Garrett Klingman has committed to continue his playing career at Cal Poly.
“They’re loaded,” said NIC athletic director Al Williams of Elite Prep. “They’ve got six players above 6-foot-6 and should be really competitive.”
The semifinals for the tournament are scheduled for 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, with the title game Friday night at Rolly Williams Court.
NIC’s women’s basketball team takes the floor tonight at 5 against Highline in the Red Devil Holiday Classic hosted by Lower Columbia College in Longview, Wash. The Cardinal women enter the game on a two-game win streak, beating a group of alumni players on Dec. 10 in their final game before the holiday break.
WHILE THEY won’t be playing for a title with three predetermined games in the Lake City Holiday tournament a little further up Ramsey Road from NIC, there’s still a good chance some teams could get an early state tournament preview in a hurry this week.
The tournament opens with Mountain Home facing Lakeland today at 2 p.m. Both teams are in the 4A classification and met a couple years ago in the state tournament, with Mountain Home getting the best of Lakeland in the opening round at state in 2015. Kaden Davis, now a junior, is the lone returning player for the Hawks from that game.
On Thursday, tournament host Lake City will face Timberline High of Boise at 5:15 in a game that could be an early round matchup in Nampa should the ball bounce the right way for both schools after the New Year.
Meanwhile Post Falls, which had four games canceled on a road trip to Oregon and Central Washington, will get back on the court for the first time since losing at Richland (Wash.) 79-72 on Dec. 9.
Fans shouldn’t have a dull moment, wherever you choose to go find it.
Jason Elliott is a sports writer for the Coeur d’Alene Press. He can be reached by telephone at (208) 664-8176, Ext. 2020 or via email at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @JEPressSports.