The women's basketball teams from North Idaho College and Salt Lake Community College have developed quite the rivalry over the past half-dozen years.

Salt Lake defeated NIC for the Region 18 title in 2006 to qualify for the NJCAA tournament, and NIC returned the favor in 2010 and again last Saturday.

Salt Lake qualified for nationals in 2006 and '07, with finishes of 13th (tie) and seventh.

So if anyone would know how 15th-ranked North Idaho College (28-3) might fare this year at nationals, which begin next Tuesday at the Bicentennial Center in Salina, Kan., it's Salt Lake coach Betsy Specketer.

"They have so many weapons," Specketer said after NIC defeated Salt Lake 69-59 in the Region 18 title game in Twin Falls. "They've got kids that can score. Kama Griffitts is playing as well as she's played her whole two years (at NIC); she's a tough matchup. And you feel like you might be able to stop her, and somebody else steps up. They're just really tough in the interior, with 21 (Tugce Canitez) and 24 (Kiki Edwards-Teasley). They're very long, so with their zone defense, it's tough to get a shot off. It's tough to make a pass."

NIC finished eighth at the 16-team nationals last year, after finishing ninth the year before in the Cardinals' first trip to nationals since 1997. NIC also went in 1989, '88, '86 and '84. NIC's best finish was sixth in '97.

"Last year we had the first team on the ropes and let it slip away," NIC coach Chris Carlson said. "The year before we went win, loss, loss. ... I think we're ready for a win, win, win scenario."

Four of NIC's five starters - Griffitts, Tugce Canitez, Camille Reynolds and Kiki Edwards-Teasley - played on last year's team that went 2-2 at nationals.

"It (experience at nationals) helps a lot," Carlson said. "Nine of these girls were there last year. Now they've got that picture in their mind, they know what the level's like."

NIC will learn its first-round foe on Thursday. NIC was an eighth seed and a seventh seed in the past two trips to nationals, and Carlson said he thought the Cardinals deserve a 4 or 5 seed this year.

In statistics prior to the Region 18 tournament, Griffitts is fourth in the Scenic West Athletic Conference in scoring at 16.4 points per game, and Canitez is seventh at 15.2. Reynolds is 10th at 10.3.

Canitez is second in the SWAC in rebounding at 9.5 per game and Deanna Dotts, who returned for regionals after undergoing arthroscopic surgery just prior to regionals, is fourth at 7.3.

Canitez shoots a conference high 55.1 percent from the field.

Reynolds noted the Cardinals were “excited to be there last year,” and added expectations are a little higher this time around.

“It (a national title) is definitely in our grasp,” Griffitts said. “Beating the No. 3 team (Central Arizona) in Arizona was big for us.”

NIC is tough to defend inside with Canitez and Edwards-Teasley, and hard to defend on the outside with Reynolds and freshman point guard Korina Baker. And Griffitts is a tough matchup anywhere on the floor.

And Dotts, a post, as well as guards Amy Warbrick and Chantel Divilbiss and forward Amanda Carlton, give NIC depth off the bench.

Specketer, whose team beat NIC twice in three meetings during Scenic West Athletic Conference play, said she didn’t want to put any pressure on the Cardinals, but ...

“They’ve got all the tools, they’ve got everything it takes to make some noise back there,” she said. “I see them as a final four team; I’d be real surprised if they’re not. He (Carlson) has got that kind of a team; hopefully we helped make him a little bit better.”