NIC BASKETBALL: Swishin' and dishin' .... Campbell drains four 3s, Cardinals with 19 assists in romp over USU-Eastern

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

COEUR d’ALENE — To Cobi Campbell, it’s the same ball and hoop it has always been.

After hitting his fourth 3-pointer on Saturday, that hoop just seemed a lot bigger.

Campbell, a sophomore from Seattle, had 13 points and three assists for North Idaho College in an 87-62 win over the Utah State University-Eastern Eagles in a Scenic West Athletic Conference game at Rolly Williams Court.

Campbell’s third 3-pointer of the second half increased NIC's lead to 53-29 with 16:27 remaining.

“It brings a lot of good energy to the team,” Campbell said. “Not just me personally, but when we move the ball really well, it could be me or somebody else, the energy gets to everyone. When we play together, we can play some good basketball and think we can hang with anybody.”

“The nice thing is that we all know that Cobi can shoot the ball,” NIC coach Corey Symons said. “He’s about as good as anybody shooting the ball. But we’ve got to get shots for him, and we did that today and made the extra passes. We had 19 assists, and when we’re able to do that, we’re going to be tough to beat. They run a tough matchup zone, and Cobi did a good job of finding his gaps and making some shots.”

NIC (14-6, 2-2 SWAC) held Utah State-Eastern (11-5, 2-2) to 21-of-54 shooting, including 9 of 28 in the first half, to take a 39-26 halftime lead.

“Our defense is really picking it up,” Symons said. “We saw some stuff on film that we could expose and the guys did a good job of listening to the scout tonight. And we just played good defense.”

NIC won its second straight conference game to improve to 2-2. The Cardinals returned to the conference for the first time since the 2015-16 season after leaving the Northwest Athletic Conference. The Cardinals face Southern Nevada on Thursday in Las Vegas. Salt Lake beat Southern Nevada 125-80 on Saturday in Taylorsville, Utah.

“We’ve had some challenges early on with a tough preseason schedule,” Campbell said. “That’s what we were looking forward to. We’re learning as a team and coming together. Our goal is to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season, and that’s what we're working toward.”

Campbell signed with Troy (Ala.) of the Sun Belt Conference in November.

“Personally, it’s all just basketball,” Campbell said. “It’s the same game, just different players and teams. I think a lot of our guys that came back from last year, and the guys that transferred in have that same mindset. We had a lot of new guys on the team at the start of the year, and it takes time to mold the team. But we’ve really making strides and coming together.”

Vaughn Weems, a freshman from Federal Way, Wash., had 17 points and five rebounds for NIC.

“We’re just trying to get him going,” Symons said. “He’s playing so well right now and we need to get him more minutes. But you look at Jalen (Skalskiy, a sophomore from Lakeland High), and it’s a quiet 13 points and 11 rebounds, and a huge double-double. These guys are really buying into our team and realizing that points aren’t all matters and doing the little things that help their team win.”

Kyle Karstetter, a sophomore from Moses Lake, had 10 points and seven rebounds for NIC.

“Kyle’s a high IQ player,” Symons said. “He does such a good job for us on the defensive end.”

Utah State-Eastern sophomore Martell Williams, a Southern Utah transfer, had 26 points and six rebounds.

“He’s the No. 3 scorer in the league, and really plays downhill,” Symons said. “We packed the paint and made it really hard for him. He finished with 26, and that’s how good he is, but we tried to make it tough for him. He’s a beast and plays strong. We did a good job on him tonight.”

UTAH STATE-EASTERN

Trace Ross 3-7 2-3 8, Ethan Copeland 0-6 0-0 0, Ryker Richards 0-1 0-0 0, Dyson Lighthall 2-8 4-7 8, Martel Williams 9-18 7-12 26, Terrian Roy 1-4 0-0 3, Brady Arbon 1-1 0-0 2, Kendall Alexander 3-5 2-3 9, Sheldon Romirell 2-4 0-0 6. Totals 21-54 15-25 62.

NORTH IDAHO

Vaughn Weems 7-10 2-5 17, Cobi Campbell 4-7 1-1 13, Kyle Karstetter 4-8 2-2 10, Dante Sawyer 6-11 1-4 14, Jalen Skalskiy 6-9 0-2 13, Terin Johnson 2-4 4-5 8, Austin Johnson 1-5 3-4 5, D’Andre Clermont 1-1 0-0 2, Tayshawn Colvin 1-1 0-0 3, Bryce Henry 0-1 2-2 2, Tanner Tollestrup 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 32-57 15-25 87.

Halftime — NIC 39-26. 3-point goals — USUE 5-22 (Ross 0-3, Copeland 0-3, Richards 0-1, Williams 1-7, Roy 1-2, Alexander 1-2, Romirell 2-4), NIC 8-21 (Weems 1-2, Campbell 4-7, Karstetter 0-3, Sawyer 1-2, Skalskiy 1-3, A. Johnson 0-3, Colvin 1-1). Rebounds — USUE 30 (Alexander 8), NIC 36 (Skalskiy 11). Assists — USUE 7 (Williams 2), NIC 19 (Sawyer 5). Team fouls — USUE 23, NIC 19. Fouled out — none. 

• WOMEN

Utah State-Eastern 81, North Idaho 55: For three quarters, the host Cardinals looked as if they’d caught up with the 16th-ranked Eagles of Price, Utah.

But, the 5:05 stretch at the second quarter in which Utah State-Eastern used a 19-0 run to pull away has second-year NIC coach Nathan Covill going back to the drawing board.

Utah State-Eastern, which scored the game’s first 10 points, built a 34-9 lead with 4:55 remaining in the first half of the Scenic West Athletic Conference game at Rolly Williams Court.

“I thought we competed well in the second half,” Covill said. “We’ve still got some issues where we weren’t making corrections, but we competed a lot better. It definitely doesn’t help when they make their first five shots, and we miss our first six. How we played in the second half is something that we can look forward to going into practice on Monday.”

NIC (7-11, 0-3 SWAC) travels to the College of Southern Nevada of Las Vegas on Thursday.

“The message to them was we’ve all got choices,” Covill said. “You can choose to get this bad taste out of our mouths on Monday, and hopefully we’ll make the right ones.”

NIC pulled with 57-39 early in the fourth on a jumper by Kendall Pickford.

“Defensively, we have small, brief glimpses of being a defensive team,” Covill said. “And then we’ve got a lot of breakdown transition wise. In the second quarter, they’re deep and we didn’t stop the ball. They just pushed it down our throats and by the time we saw the ball coming, we were being reactive instead of someone that dictates pressure. It’s tough to win games when you’re the one that’s reacting to what everything people are doing. We did some good things and changed that in the second half.”

Sophomore Solei Elletson, who also plays soccer at NIC, had 15 points and four rebounds. Elletson did not play the first two months of the season to rest following the soccer season.

“Getting her back has been a blessing, not just because she’s talented, but we’re thin on numbers,” Covill said. “We’re trying to find ways to get her spots to score. She competed really well today for the entire 40 minutes. She’s a multi-sport athlete, so you know what you’re going to get on a daily basis from here.”

NIC finished 20-of-65 shooting, compared to 33-of-61 for Utah State-Eastern. Freshman guard Ellie Esplin scored 15 points for Utah State-Eastern.

“It’s a tough job because they can get to the basket,” ninth-year Utah State-Eastern coach Chelsey Warburton said. “We were able to get out to their shooters and did a good job. It’s a tough gym to play in, so I’m pleased with the result. We were able to push the ball and did a good job of sharing the ball and knocking down some shots.”

UTAH STATE-EASTERN

Ellie Esplin 7-11 0-0 15, Summer Christensen 4-10 0-0 9, Aly Coombs 2-7 2-4 6, Japrix Weaver 3-4 2-2 10, Hadley Humphreys 4-6 2-3 10, McKenzie Allen 1-1 0-0 2, Janel Blazzard 2-4 0-0 5, Madison Anderson 3-6 0-0 6, Kianna Lighthall 0-0 0-0 0, Brinlee McRae 2-4 0-0 4, Annie Stinar 5-7 0-0 14, Teuila Fa’alogo 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 33-61 6-9 81.

NORTH IDAHO

Deniece Ryan 4-10 1-3 10, Maddie Williamson 2-11 2-4 6, Iratxe Amorrortu 1-2 2-3 4, Addie Kiefer 4-9 2-4 10, Kendall Pickford 2-14 0-0 5, Solei Elletson 5-13 2-2 15, Kalysta Troman 1-2 0-0 3, Diana Morales 1-1 0-0 2, Faye Davis 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 20-65 9-16 55.

USU-Eastern    14    25    18    24    —    81

North Idaho    9    10    17    19    —    55

3-point goals — USUE 9-18 (Esplin 1-3, Christensen 1-4, Coombs 0-1, Weaver 2-3, Blazzard 1-1, McRae 0-1, Stinar 4-5), NIC 6-16 (Ryan 1-1, Pickford 1-8, Elletson 3-6, Troman 1-1). Rebounds — USUE 39 (Humphreys 11), NIC 26 (Pickford 6). Assists — USUE 13 (Christensen 4), NIC 6 (Pickford 4). Team fouls — USUE 14, NIC 7. Fouled out — none.

    KYLE DISHAW PHOTOGRAPHY Addie Kiefer, a sophomore from Lakeland High, drives to the basket on Utah State-Eastern freshman Aly Coombs during the second half of Saturday's game at Rolly Williams Court.