NIC MEN'S BASKETBALL: Packed house watches NIC men whip CSI
Antunez leads third-ranked Cardinals in final regular season matchup with state rival
COEUR d’ALENE — Life is pretty good right now for the third-ranked North Idaho College men’s basketball team.
They’re rolling, improving to 26-0 on the season and closing in on the Scenic West Athletic Conference championship.
And you can expect, on any given night, that someone is going to do something special.
Saturday night, it was Lucas Antunez that was pretty special, finishing with 20 points and eight assists as the Cardinals beat the College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles 91-74 at Rolly Williams Court.
“He’s just playing absolutely great right now,” said NIC coach Corey Symons of Antunez. “We’ve been working with him here for two years and he’s an absolute great kid. We just try to tell him, and my goal for the last two years has been to keep it simple on the court. He’s really good when he does that, and tonight he made the easy passes and when he was open, he knocked down some shots.”
Antunez had 11 points and five assists in the second half, helping NIC improve to 11-0 in conference.
“As a point guard, I’ve got to take what the other teams give me,” Antunez said. “As a pass-first point guard, they usually leave me open a little more than most other players. My coach has told me to be a little more aggressive. I just need to keep listening to my coaches and keep knocking down shots.”
BJ Blake had 28 points and Braian Angola-Rodas had 18 points and eight rebounds for NIC, which plays at Colorado Northwestern on Thursday.
CSI (19-7, 7-4) kept things close throughout the first half, but trailed 34-28 at halftime.
“I really liked how we played in the first half,” CSI coach Jared Phay said. “Shaq Carr got a couple of fouls and we played without him for a while and didn’t shoot a great percentage. I was happy with our first half, I liked where we were at. They just came out and hit some shots in the second half and that took our energy away from us and they ran away from us.”
With 16:40 remaining in the game, Angola-Rodas — who had scored eight of 10 points to open the second half — was fouled on a layup and was sidelined momentarily before returning. CSI cut the deficit to 66-54 before the sophomore returned to the game.
“That changed things for the bad for a few minutes and they went on a run there,” Symons said. “We’ve just got to keep our composure. I love that the guys fight for each other, and I love that they’ve got each other’s back. We’ve got such a team chemistry thing going and I love that they stick up for each other, but we’ve got to be smarter than that and keep our cool. CSI came out and put it to us and we’ve got to be a little smarter with that. It was nice once we got Braian back into the game, and the guys knew he was fine, to get him going and get the momentum back.”
Trey Burch-Manning finished with 13 second half points for NIC.
Ar’Mond Davis and EJ Boyce had 17 points each for CSI, which entered the game on a four-game win streak within the conference.
“North Idaho is better than those teams we were on a streak against,” said Phay, who coached at NIC for 10 years before leaving for CSI in April of 2014. “They’re good and this is a tough place to play, as I know all too well, especially when it’s packed like it was tonight. The crowd gave them a lot of energy.”
That crowd — which turned into standing room only during most of the men’s game — turned out for what was the final regular season game between the two conference rivals before NIC moves to the Northwest Athletic Conference for the 2016-17 season.
“I really don’t know when we’ll be back here,” Phay said. “And it’s going to be weird to walk out of here because I don’t know when we’ll be back here for another game.”
SOUTHERN IDAHO
Gloire Biongo 1-2 3-4 5, Shaq Carr 6-13 3-4 15, Pape Diatta 2-11 3-6 8, EJ Boyce 5-14 2-2 17, Marquis Godfrey 2-2 0-0 4, Ar’Mond Davis 5-13 2-2 17, UC Iroegbu 2-2 0-0 6, Con Bauer 0-0 0-0 0, Dakota Chambers 0-1 2-2 2, Austin Winegar 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-58 15-20 74.
NORTH IDAHO
Sam Dowd 1-2 2-4 4, Lucas Antunez 5-13 7-7 20, Haywood Irwin 1-2 0-0 2, Trey Burch-Manning 4-6 5-7 13, BJ Blake 12-23 2-3 28, Braian Angola-Rodas 4-10 5-6 15, Kaleb Warner 1-3 0-2 3, Kyle Guice 2-7 0-0 6, Zaequan Satterhwaite 0-0 0-0 0, Scott Turner 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-67 21-29 91.
Halftime — NIC 34-28. 3-point goals — CSI 13-37 (Carr 0-2, Diatta 1-9, Boyce 5-13, Davis 5-11, Iroegbu 2-2), NIC 10-30 (Antunez 3-7, Irwin 0-1, Blake 2-6, Angola-Rodas 2-6, Warner 1-2, Guice 2-7, Turner 0-1). Rebounds — CSI 35 (Diatta, Davis 10), NIC 43 (Burch-Manning, Angola-Rodas, Guice 8). Assists — CSI 13 (Carr, Boyce 5), NIC 22 (Antunez 8). Team fouls — CSI 24, NIC 16. Fouled out — none. Technical fouls — Godfrey, Angola-Rodas.