NIC BASKETBALL: Snowed under ... Cardinal men get cold late, fall to top-ranked Badgers; Cardinal women fall in OT
• MEN'S BASKETBALL
COEUR d’ALENE — On a given night, you can do anything defensively and a team just gets going offensively.
And for a two-minute stretch in the second half on Saturday, it was the top-ranked (in NJCAA) Snow Badgers, despite North Idaho College’s best effort.
Snow (22-1, 8-0 SWAC) outscored NIC (13-11, 3-6) 10-2 in a two-minute span, pulling away for a 99-87 in Scenic West Athletic Conference play at Rolly Williams Court.
“There’s a reason they’re the No. 1 team in the country,” Symons said. “They execute, they shoot the ball really well and run their stuff and make their shots. Our guys battled and a couple of things didn’t go our way down the stretch. The guys battled and it was a hell of a game by both teams. They just made some big shots at the end.”
Sophomore Vaughn Weems, who finished with a game-high 38 points, hit a jumper to cut the deficit to 78-76 with 5:22 remaining. Snow scored eight straight, capped by 3-pointers by Chance Trujillo and Isaac Finlinson to stretch the advantage to 86-76.
“We’ve got to be better on the defensive end,” Symons said. “We had a lot of guys in foul trouble and had five guys in foul trouble in the first half. We’ve got to figure out how to stay out of that and compete. Down the stretch, we needed those guys.”
NIC led most of the first half, taking a 44-42 lead at halftime after leading by as much as six midway through the first.
“Those guys are very talented and Corey does such a good job with them,” said third-year Snow coach Andrew May, a previous assistant coach at Dixie State and BYU with coach Dave Rose, as well as Salt Lake Community College. “He does some very impressive stuff. It was a really physical game with a lot of free throws and super physical. But I thought our guys competed and made some free throws down the stretch to close it out.”
Weems entered the game leading the nation in scoring with 27.9 points per game.
“He’s a handful,” May said. “He’s an extremely talented player and I’m impressed with his game. Every team in our league has to deal with him in one aspect or another. Guys try a bunch of different things on him to see what sticks. Obviously, 38 tonight doesn’t stick, but I also think we guarded well down the stretch.”
NIC fell in Ephraim, Utah, 88-81 to Snow on Jan. 16. The teams will meet again on March 1 in the regular season finale.
“I told the guys, obviously we wanted to win this game because it was a big game,” Symons said. “But all you’ve got to do is beat them once at the regional tournament. And we’ve got to do our work to hold home court in the next three games and see if we can get into that tournament. And anything can happen that weekend.”
Southern Idaho (19-5, 7-2) beat Utah State-Eastern (9-9, 2-6) 94-61 in Twin Falls in other conference play on Saturday.
CSI, which is second in the conference, visits NIC next Saturday at 3 p.m.
SNOW
Mark Brown 5-12 8-9 19, Chance Trujillo 3-7 3-5 11, Isaac Finlinson 8-15 6-6 27, Sean Felts 3-3 1-3 7, Isaac Garrett 4-8 5-6 14, McCaden Adams 4-9 2-2 12, Coleman Ford 2-5 0-0 5, Kyle Lemke 2-3 0-2 4, Aaron Bliss 2-3 0-2 4. Totals 31-62 25-33 99.
NORTH IDAHO
Vaughn Weems 14-22 8-9 38, Deng Diew 7-10 5-9 19, Ne’quan Brown 2-6 2-2 6, Dace Pleasant 2-7 0-0 4, Tayshawn Colvin 3-7 3-4 10, Jeremiah Sibley 1-2 0-1 2, Sam Marbury 1-3 0-0 3, Jacori Ervin 0-0 0-0 0, Bryce Henry 0-0 0-0 0, Ajayi Simmons 2-5 2-2 6. Totals 32-62 20-27 87.
Halftime — NIC 44-42. 3-point goals — Snow 12-31 (Brown 1-4, Trujillo 2-5, Finlinson 5-9, Garrett 1-4, Adams 2-5, Ford 1-4), NIC 3-13 (Weems 2-5, Brown 0-1, Pleasant 0-3, Colvin 1-2, Sibley 0-1, Simmons 0-2). Rebounds — Snow 33 (Trujillo 11), NIC 31 (Diew 7). Assists — Snow 13 (Garrett 4), NIC 4 (Pleasant, Colvin, Sibley, Brown 1). Team fouls — Snow 27, NIC 26. Fouled out — Lemke, Diew.
• WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
Snow 76
North Idaho 69 (OT)
COEUR d’ALENE — In their previous matchup against the Badgers, the Cardinals struggled to get their offense going before it really took off to the tune of five straight wins.
On Saturday, try as they might, they couldn’t keep it going.
NIC sophomore Kylani Rookstool hit a 3-pointer with 28.9 seconds remaining to tie the game at 58-58, eventually forcing overtime after neither team could get a shot to final in the final moments.
Snow (14-9, 3-5 SWAC) outscored NIC (14-9, 6-3) 17-11 in the extra five minutes get a win.
“Going back to our first game, we struggled to find a way to get into an offensive rhythm in the first half and kind of did some things in the third and fourth quarter that gave us a lead,” Covill said. “Tonight, we still struggled to get downhill and get paint touches against them. Credit goes to (Snow) Coach Zu (Grinsell) and her team. Those girls, they play hard and played hard against us. She has those kids playing hard and when you’ve got a group of kids that play hard, they’re tough to beat. And we’ve been that group for the last few games and now we got punched in the mouth a little bit.”
Freshman Chloe Collin scored 12 points for NIC, which shot 22 of 60.
“I told the ladies I didn’t have them prepared enough for this game, so I’m taking the blame,” Covill said. “In terms in how we prepared, with some better preparation, we would have been able to adjust better. Tonight, Snow was a better team. We struggled to get stops and they just kicked our tails inside.”
Iyana Beh had 22 points and nine rebounds for Snow, which finished 28 of 58.
“I’m pleased we had three kids in double figures,” Covill said. “But we as a staff have to get our kids ready to play each game. It’s tough when you have a great home game, and come out and have a tough performance.”
In other SWAC play, Utah State-Eastern (12-9, 4-3) upset No. Xxxx Southern Idaho (18-6, 6-3) 54-46 in Twin Falls on Saturday. The loss moves the Golden Eagles a half-game back of Salt Lake (17-5, 6-2) for the conference lead.
CSI travels to NIC for the second matchup of the season between the in-state rivals next Saturday at 1 p.m.
SNOW
Brooke Pennington 2-9 0-0 5, Maliyah Elliott 1-4 0-0 2, Kiriana Hawaikirangi 4-7 9-10 17, Lili Suguturaga 4-9 1-2 9, Iyana Beh 9-13 4-9 22, Hadley Richins 2-5 0-0 5, Sydnee Smith 0-1 1-2 1, Seini Tuipulotu 4-6 2-6 11, Alisi Peaua 1-1 0-2 2, Amber Cook 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 28-58 17-30 76.
NORTH IDAHO
Chloe Collin 5-7 2-4 12, Kylani Rookstool 6-16 7-8 24, Esmeralda Galindo 5-14 6-6 16, Iratxe Amorrortu 1-4 1-2 4, Summer Falaefa 1-5 0-0 2, Tiarnee Smith 2-9 1-1 6, Ripeka Edwards 0-2 1-2 1, Emmalee Secrest 1-2 0-0 2, Tayler Adams 1-1 0-1 2, Elisa Holakeituai 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-60 18-24 69.
Snow 14 17 10 17 18 — 76
North Idaho 12 23 6 17 11 — 69
3-point goals — Snow 3-12 (Pennington 1-5, Elliott 0-1, Suguturaga 0-1, Richins 1-3, Tuipulotu 1-1, Cook 0-1), NIC 7-23 (Collin 0-2, Rookstool 5-8, Galindo 0-3, Amorrortu 1-3, Faleafa 0-2, Smith 1-2, Edwards 0-2, Secrest 0-1). Rebounds — Snow 33 (Beh 9), NIC 28 (Smith 7). Assists — Snow 5 (Hawaikirangi 2), NIC 6 (Collin 2). Team fouls — Snow 20, NIC 25. Fouled out — Rookstook, Galindo.
