Holiday hoops, just not around home
There’s nothing like college basketball for the holidays, especially over Thanksgiving weekend.
Just don’t expect to see it here locally at least.
IN THE first time in a few years, neither the North Idaho College men’s or women’s basketball team will compete in games over the break.
NIC’s men’s team swept Northwest College of Powell, Wyo., last weekend, winning 87-80 at home on Friday and then 71-61 on Saturday.
And while it wasn’t the intended route to victory on Saturday, it was just a case of finding a way to win.
“We’ve got a good group of guys that can shoot the ball,” NIC men’s basketball coach Corey Symons said. “We just had to find another way to score. Hopefully, we can continue to do that. We just had an off weekend.”
The Cardinals will return to action on Dec. 2-3 at a tournament at Everett Community College.
Not even area high schools are opting to take advantage of the break, with no games scheduled after Tuesday night.
“It’s the first time we’ve taken this time off in a while where the players can go home for a few days,” Symons said. “We’ll do some practices and get ready for Everett.”
Meanwhile, the NIC women’s team, which scored 109 points in Saturday’s win, put up 90 points in a home win over Bellevue on Sunday to improve to 3-0 on the season. In a scrimmage last Thursday, the team scored 128 points against Okanogan College from Kelowna, British Columbia.
“We think we can play at a pretty fast pace,” said NIC women’s basketball coach Chris Carlson, who won his 300th game at the school on Friday. “We had to grind one out (67-64 in overtime against Northwest College last Friday) and then had a big night scoring. We’ll find out what we’re made of really soon.”
Due to a scheduling quirk, the women’s team is not scheduled to return to Rolly Williams Court until Jan. 10, when the Cardinals will face Columbia Basin College in a Northwest Athletic Conference game.
The men’s team will host a crossover tournament Dec. 17-19 and then the annual Coeur d’Alene Inn-vitational Dec. 27-29 at Rolly Williams Court.
BOTH NIC teams proved over the weekend they can win games in different fashions.
Whether it’s a defensive battle, or a game that quickly turns into a shootout, they seem to have both situations covered.
There’s a long way to go and plenty of times to either become that lock-down defensive team, or can score in the triple digits on a constant basis.
Some nights, either team could have to grind a game out on the road, or put up a ton of points to get the job done.
Whatever that might be, it could make for an interesting few months following just what happens next.
You know, when they get back to playing at home in a few weeks.
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 @JECdAPress.