REGION 18 BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT: NIC men upset in finals
• MEN
TWIN FALLS — The body of work should be enough to get the North Idaho College men’s basketball team a bid to the NJCAA tournament March 14-19 in Hutchinson, Kan.
But, following a 86-73 loss to the third-seeded Salt Lake Bruins on Saturday night in the Region 18 championship game — the Cardinals first of the season — they’ll have to wait at least a week to find out if that 31-game win streak and No. 3-ranking in the nation was enough for the school’s first trip to nationals since 1997.
“The guys played hard, but we just struggled in a couple of areas,” second-year NIC coach Corey Symons said. “They forced us into 20 turnovers, and we didn’t shoot the ball that well (23 of 60 from the field). It’s kind of bittersweet, but not bad to regroup now and work on some things.”
The selection committee will announce the four at-large picks on March 6.
“The tough thing is, we didn’t want to leave it in the voters’ hands,” Symons said. “It’s always tough to leave it in someone else’s hands, but I think we put ourselves in a position to get an at-large bid.”
Trey Burch-Manning, who was selected to the all-tournament team, had 14 points and 10 rebounds for NIC, which escaped with a 91-90 victory over Salt Lake at home on Feb. 18.
“Trey played great,” Symons said. “It’s tough because he played his tail off — all the guys did — but it’s tough to go into the locker room right now. Salt Lake is a really good team, and to try and beat a really good team four times in a row is ridiculous. We were down by five with two minutes left, but turned the ball over. We had a chance.”
Tyler Rawson had 22 points and 10 rebounds for Salt Lake (25-8), which hosts the Arizona regional champion next Saturday in a District playoff game for an automatic bid to nationals.
SALT LAKE
Gibson Johnson 5-9 3-4 13, Conner Toolson 6-9 4-5 21, Marcus White 3-6 0-0 7, Tyler Rawson 6-10 10-11 22, Tad Dufelmeier 5-8 0-0 12, Bushmen Ebet 2-9 3-4 9, Austin Waddoups 0-2 2-2 2, Mckay Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Christian Musoko 0-1 0-0 0, Tanner Newbold 0-1 0-0 2. Totals 27-55 22-26 86.
NORTH IDAHO
Lucas Antunez 1-6 3-4 6, Braian Angola-Rodas 4-11 5-6 13, Kaleb Warner 2-5 0-0 5, Kyle Guice 4-11 4-4 13, BJ Blake 3-8 2-4 8, Sam Dowd 1-5 2-2 4, Haywood Irwin 4-6 0-0 10, Zaequan Satterhwaite 0-0 0-0 0, Trey Burch-Manning 4-8 5-10 14, Scott Turner 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-60 21-30 73.
Halftime — NIC 38-37. 3-point goals — SLCC 10-24 (Johnson 0-2, Toolson 5-6, White 1-1, Rawson 0-3, Dufelmeier 2-5, Ebet 2-6, Newbold 0-1), NIC 6-25 (Antunez 1-4, Angola-Rodas 0-4, Warner 1-3, Guice 1-7, Blake 0-2, Dowd 0-2, Irwin 2-2, Burch-Manning 1-1). Rebounds — SLCC 34 (Rawson 10), NIC 39 (Burch-Manning 10). Assists — SLCC 15 (Dufelmeier 7), NIC 17 (Angola-Rodas 5). Team fouls — SLCC 21, NIC 21. Fouled out — Antunez.
• WOMEN
Southern Idaho 66, Salt Lake 53: Kandiss Barber had 20 points and 10 rebounds to lead the second-seeded Golden Eagles (28-4) past the Bruins (30-2) in the championship game of the Region 18 tournament, advancing to the NJCAA tournament March 14-19 in Lubbock, Texas.
Tilar Clark scored 13 points for Salt Lake, whose lone two losses came to CSI. Salt Lake will have to wait until March 6 to see if it receives an at-large bid to nationals.