NIC BASKETBALL: Hard work gets Cardinal men back into Region 18 mix

By JASON ELLIOTT

Sports writer

North Idaho College men’s basketball coach Corey Symons philosophy is simple.

Get guys that are going to work, no matter how big the opponent is.

In the program’s first trip back to the NJCAA’s Scenic West Athletic Conference, the Cardinals put the work in, advancing to the four-team Region 18 Championships in Taylorsville, Utah.

“We always try to go out and get the best players we can, regardless of where we’re at,” said Symons, whose program spent the past seven years in the regionally-based Northwest Athletic Conference before finding out in July that they were moving back to the NJCAA. “This group was all built with an NWAC (which only offers partial scholarship money, whereas NIC can offer more funding for housing in the NJCAA. We had this team built well before we knew that we were going back, but they’re also good enough to compete at this level.”

NIC has three sophomores — Austin Johnson (College of Southern Idaho), Dante Sawyer (San Francisco City College) and Kyle Karstetter (Idaho State) — that have played at a higher level. Cobi Campbell, a sophomore guard, signed with Troy (Ala.) of the Sun Belt Conference in November.

“They’re all good kids and play hard,” Symons said. “But depth is hard at the national level. But I love the 10 guys we’ve got traveling with us and what they’re doing right now. We bought ourselves a chance. Now we’ve got to show up.”

NIC (21-9) is the fourth seed and opens the tournament against top seeded Salt Lake (27-3), who won the Scenic West Conference regular season title, on Friday at 4 p.m. PST.

Southern Idaho (22-8) will face Utah State-Eastern (19-8) in the other semifinal at 6:30.

The Region 18 Champion will face the Region 1 (Arizona) Champion for the West automatic bid to nationals on March 16 at the site of the Region 1 champion. The NJCAA Tournament is March 24-30 in Hutchinson, Kan.

Campbell, sophomore Jalen Skalskiy, sophomore Terin Johnson and freshman Vaughn Weems have been sidelined due to injury this week, but Symons added they’ll play on Friday.

“We’re in a tough spot health wise,” Symons said. “We had three starters who had missed the CSI game and are still trying to get back.”

Campbell did not practice or play in last week’s games with a hip flexor injury. Skalskiy, with a knee injury, returned to practice. Both Johnson and Weems played last Saturday against CSI.

“They’re all going to play,” Symons said. “Probably through some pain, but we’re trying to get them ready to go.”

NIC lost 89-76 on Jan. 13 at home to Salt Lake, then again 87-73 on Feb. 17 in Utah.

“They’re a really deep team and can bring a lot of pieces at you,” Symons said. “We were in both games, but had a three minute stretch where we went cold. We just need to stay as consistent as possible.”

It is the second year of the four-team conference tournament, with the championship game scheduled for Saturday at 2 p.m.

All games will be broadcast on the Scenic West Athletic Conference Network.