NIC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Sluggish start dooms NIC women vs. CSI
COEUR d’ALENE — It wasn’t so much the struggles in the second half that cost the North Idaho Cardinal women’s basketball team in its home game against the 10th-ranked College of Southern Idaho on Saturday afternoon.
All you’ve got to do is point to the first 16 minutes of game time.
As NIC continued to struggle from the field, hitting 2 of 13 from the 3-point line on the way to a 34-13 hole in the first half, CSI was that much better in that span, going 14 of 31 in the first half of a 68-50 win at Rolly Williams Court.
“That set the tone early,” Carlson said. “We tried a little bit of zone early on, and that was a bad call. And they really got the momentum. We battled back, and battled back, and battled back and they had an answer every time.”
NIC scored nine of the final 11 points in the first half to close it to a 36-22 halftime deficit.
CSI (23-3, 8-3 SWAC) finished the game 29 of 62 from the field and held NIC to 20 of 63.
“They just executed better than we did,” Carlson said. “Offensively, I guess we’ve got to give their defense some credit there, but we couldn’t find it but for small spurts. They just had bigger spurts.”
Stormee Van Belle had 10 points and 12 rebounds for NIC (17-7, 5-6), which has lost three straight games in conference.
CSI beat NIC 87-83 in double overtime on Dec. 12 at NIC, and 72-70 at Twin Falls on Jan. 16
Maci Benedict had eight points and four rebounds for NIC, with six of her eight coming in the first half.
“I don’t think it was them, it was more of us and what we did,” Benedict said. “We could have executed better and played better as a team. We’ve been working on that in practice, and we’re going to keep getting better from this. We need to execute better on offense and move the ball around more.
Matti Ventling scored 13 points for CSI.
“Thought the first half, we put them in some tough shot situations,” CSI coach Randy Rogers said. “I think they got caught in transition and gave up some easy buckets and we were able to extend the lead. I thought we played with some good energy tonight without Alexia Mefi (out with an injury) an she’s one of our better players. Kadiss (Barber) has been battling a toe problem and fought through. I was happy that some other kids stepped up and got us a win tonight.”
Barber finished with 11 points — all in the second half — for CSI.
“To win it by that margin, they didn’t shoot it that well tonight,” Rogers said. “I don’t always expect them to shoot it like that. That’s a darn good team and there’s four really good teams. The top four are really good and we’re sitting third in the conference with only three losses.”
It was also the final regular season game between NIC and CSI in the Scenic West Athletic Conference. NIC will move to the Northwest Athletic Conference at the start of the 2016-17 season.
“It’s been fun,” Rogers said. “Chris and (NIC assistant coach) Carey (Carlson) have always been classy. I always tell people about the atmosphere up here — the promiximity of the bench to the court, the fans, the band — I’m going to miss it. It’s one of the unique places in junior college, anywhere.”
NIC travels to Colorado Northwestern on Thursday.
SOUTHERN IDAHO
Kandiss Barber 5-13 1-2 11, Ma Kenzie VanSickle 4-9 0-0 9, Brianna Osorio 5-14 0-0 10, Tori Anderson 0-0 0-0 0, Matti Ventling 5-9 2-3 13, Ruby Shreeve 3-6 0-0 7, Anna Jofresa 3-4 0-0 7, Ariel Augustine 0-2 2-2 2, Samantha Lubcke 4-5 1-2 9. Totals 29-62 6-9 68.
NORTH IDAHO
Gracie Roberts 1-2 0-0 2, Maci Benedict 3-8 1-2 8, Alyssa Case 1-4 0-0 2, Shelby Cloninger 2-11 0-0 5, Monica Landdeck 1-8 2-4 5, Jocelyn Cook-Cox 1-3 1-2 4, Ebony Norman 3-8 0-0 6, Clarissa Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Stormee Van Belle 4-10 2-3 10, Grace Varcoe 3-8 0-0 6, Charity Marlatt 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 20-63 6-11 50.
Southern Idaho 16 20 17 15 — 68
North Idaho 9 13 20 8 — 50
3-point goals — CSI 4-12 (VanSickle 1-5, Osorio 0-2, Ventling 1-2, Shreeve 1-1, Jofresa 1-2), NIC 4-23 (Benedict 1-5, Cloninger 1-5, Landdeck 1-7, Cook-Cox 1-2, Norman 0-3, Van Belle 0-1). Rebounds — CSI 35 (Lubcke 8), NIC 45 (Van Belle 12). Assists — CSI 12 (Osorio 4), NIC 8 (Cloninger, Landdeck, Varcoe 2). Team fouls — CSI 15, NIC 15. Fouled out — none. Technical fouls — Cloninger, Varcoe.