NIC ROUNDUP: PERFECT: Cardinals cap 30-0 regular season
• MEN
COEUR d’ALENE — After the North Idaho College men’s basketball team finished off the first undefeated regular season in school history, Cardinals coach Corey Symons made it a point to thank the crowd as the team cut down the nets.
After all, it was the third straight game a standing-room-only crowd filled Rolly Williams Court.
And on Saturday, the fans were rewarded with perfection as NIC pulled away in the second half to defeat Snow College 80-67 in Scenic West Athletic Conference play to finish the regular season 30-0, 15-0 in the SWAC.
“It was unbelievable, the crowd support we had,” Symons said. “Going back to that Salt Lake game on Thursday (when NIC rallied from an 87-80 deficit to win 91-90), the crowd won that game for us.”
On Saturday, Braian Angola-Rodas totaled 36 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals for NIC.
“BJ got into foul trouble tonight,” Symons said of NIC’s other top scorer. “When BJ and others are struggling, Braian takes over.”
NIC led Snow (14-16, 6-9) 29-28 at the half, then led by as much as 18 points in the second half. Badgers big man Norbert Janicek finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
“We didn’t shoot it well in the first half (3 for 16 from 3-point range),” Symons said. “So we just attacked the basket in the second half. We went into a zone, and it slowed (Janicek) down. We got some huge minutes off the bench from Ziggy Satterthwaite against Janicek, and Scott Turner came off the bench and played unbelievable.”
Turner, the former Lake City High standout, had seven points and four rebounds in 18 minutes. Satterthwaite had a team-high eight rebounds.
According to NIC, the school’s previous best record was 26-2-1 under longtime former coach Rolly Williams.
“The nice thing about it (30-0), it’s about all these kids,” Symons said. “They play for each other, they’re team chemistry guys, the love playing with each other.
“This is something special. I could coach for 40 more years and never have a better group of guys.”
Symons said achieving the perfect regular season was “kind of a relief, because I haven’t slept much for a while. But now we have the same record as everybody else, and now we’ve got to go win a regional title.”
NIC draws a first-round bye for the Region 18 tournament, which begins Thursday at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. NIC will enter the tournament in the semifinals on Friday, playing the winner of Thursday’s first-round game between No. 4 Snow and No. 5 Utah State-Eastern (18-12, 5-10). Southern Idaho (22-8, 10-5) also draws a first-round bye, and plays Friday against the winner of Thursday’s game between No. 3 Salt Lake (22-8, 9-6) and No. 6 Colorado Northwestern (3-26, 0-15).
SNOW
Nate Moote 1-2 3-7 5, Riley Panter 2-9 0-0 5, Jalon Lewis 2-6 2-2 8, Jabriel Allen 2-6 3-4 8, Chris O’Neill 2-4 2-2 8, Norbert Janicek 8-11 5-10 21, Jaxton Andersen 0-2 2-2 2, London Simonsen 2-5 1-2 6, JR Tailey 0-2 0-0 0, Mason Rich 2-2 0-0 4. Totals 21-49 18-29 67.
NORTH IDAHO
Sam Dowd 0-3 2-2 2, Lucas Antunez 5-11 0-0 12, Haywood Irwin 0-4 0-0 0, Trey Burch-Manning 3-8 4-6 10, BJ Blake 3-10 0-3 6, Braian Angola-Rodas 11-19 11-14 36, Kaleb Warner 2-4 1-1 5, Kyle Guice 0-3 0-0 0, Ziggy Satterthwaite 1-1 0-0 2, Scott Turner 3-4 0-0 7. Totals 28-67 18-26 80.
Halftime — NIC 29-28. 3-point goals — Snow 7-22 (Moore 0-1, Panter 1-5, Lewis 2-4, Allen 1-4, O’Neill 2-2, Janicek 0-1, Andersen 0-1, Simonsen 1-2), NIC 6-27 (Dowd 0-1, Antunez 2-5, Irwin 0-3, Burch-Manning 0-1, Blake 0-2, Angola-Rodas 3-9, Warner 0-1, Guice 0-3, Turner 1-2). Rebounds — Snow 33 (Janicek 7), NIC 45 (Satterthwaite 8). Assists — Snow 6 (Allen 3), NIC 13 (Antunez, Angola-Rodas 4). Fouled out — Lewis. Total fouls — Snow 26, NIC 26.
• WOMEN
North Idaho 74
Snow 66
COEUR d’ALENE — Shelby Cloninger and Stormee Van Belle each had double-doubles as the Cardinals beat the Badgers in the regular-season finale at Rolly Williams Court.
Cloninger totaled 17 points, 11 rebounds and five assists for NIC (20-8, 8-7 SWAC), which finished fourth in the conference. Van Belle added 14 points, 12 boards and four assists.
Ebony Norman had 13 points, Maci Benedict 12 and Jocelyn Cook-Cox 10 for the Cardinals, who prevailed despite 35.5-percent shooting (22 of 62) from the field.
“I thought our total team effort was one of our best we’ve had all season,” NIC coach Chris Carlson said. “The bench really contributed. We beat a good team, it was a nice win.”
Kaitlyn Hurley totaled 23 points and seven rebounds for Snow (19-11, 9-6), which finished third.
NIC will play fifth-seeded Utah State-Eastern (9-19, 2-13) on Thursday in the first round of the Region 18 tournament in Twin Falls. The winner will play No. 1 seed Salt Lake (29-1, 14-1) on Friday in the semifinals. Also Thursday, Snow will face Colorado Northwestern (10-19, 1-14), with the winner facing No. 2 Southern Idaho (26-4, 11-4) on Friday.
SNOW
Aubri Challis 2-11 0-0 4, Tiffany Madson 1-1 0-0 2, Lisa Van Campen 3-6 5-6 12, Lindsey Johnson 3-6 0-0 6, Mykel Davis 0-1 0-0 0, Aleksa Gappmayer 1-5 3-6 5, Sydney Martindale 0-0 2-2 2, Kaitlyn Hurley 10-18 1-2 23, Rachael McDonald 0-0 0-0 0, Brooke Wheeler 5-11 2-2 12. Totals 25-59 13-18 66.
NORTH IDAHO
Gracie Roberts 0-4 1-2 1, Maci Benedict 4-6 0-0 12, Alyssa Case 0-4 0-0 0, Shelby Cloninger 5-14 7-8 17, Monica Landdeck 1-11 2-2 5, Jocelyn Cook-Cox 3-7 2-2 10, Ebony Norman 4-8 4-6 13, Stormee Van Belle 5-8 3-4 14, Grace Varcoe 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 22-62 21-26 74.
Snow 22 9 18 17 — 66
North Idaho 20 14 19 21 — 74
3-point goals — Snow 3-13 (Challis 0-5, Van Campen 1-1, Johnson 0-1, Gappmayer 0-3, Hurley 2-3), NIC 9-28 (Roberts 0-2, Benedict 4-6, Case 0-2, Cloninger 0-1, Landdeck 1-7, Cook-Cox 2-4, Norman 1-5, Van Belle 1-1). Rebounds — Snow 43 (Wheeler 8), NIC 38 (Van Belle 12). Assists — Snow 9 (Challis 5), NIC 16 (Cloninger 5). Fouled out — Van Campen. Total fouls — Snow 18, NIC 13.