COEUR d'ALENE - If Monroe College transfer Jalil Abdul-Bassit continues to have nights like he did on Friday, it might be difficult to get him off the court.

Abdul-Bassit, a 6-foot-4 sophomore wing, scored a game-high 23 points on 9-of-10 shooting to lead the 21st-ranked North Idaho College Cardinals past the Edmonds (Wash.) Community College Tritons 93-58 in the opening round of the Bigfoot/Cardinal Classic at Rolly Williams Court.

"He was just feeling it tonight," NIC coach Jared Phay said. "It doesn't look right when you look at it, but he's a really talented player."

With fellow wing Cole Luckett still out with a torn ACL, Abdul-Bassit has started and appears to not be giving his spot up anytime soon.

"We'll need to see how healthy Cole is when he comes back," Phay said. "But that's down the road. With the Jalil is playing, it's going to be hard to keep him off the court."

Luckett is expected to return by mid-December.

"It was all on my teammates tonight," Abdul-Bassit said. "They created a lot of shots for me tonight. It was a great atmosphere tonight and I was glad all the fans came out. I knew I had to play my best and I can’t wait for Cole to get back.”

Chris Sarbaugh, a sophomore from Gonzaga Prep, added 18 points, five rebounds and four assists for NIC (9-1), which faces Yakima Valley tonight in a semifinal game at 7:30 at Rolly Williams Court.

Yakima Valley beat Lower Columbia 71-60.

“He’s huge for us,” said Phay of Sarbaugh. “He does a lot of things for us that doesn’t always show up on the stat sheet. Tonight, he just kind of filled it up.”

Edmonds trailed 28-24 midway through the first half before NIC ran away in the second half by holding the Tritons to 7-of-30 shooting from the field. NIC finished the game 37 of 62 from the field for 59.7 percent.

“I wasn’t super happy with our effort in the first half,” Phay said. “We just shot the ball well. Edmonds is a good team and shoots the ball really well, but in the second half we had a little more intensity and got the job done.”

Shaquielle McKissic scored 17 points for Edmonds (2-1), which faces Lower Columbia tonight at 5:30 at Rolly Williams Court.

“Athletically, they’re a good team and have good length,” Edmonds coach Kyle Gray said of NIC. They’ve got a really good team and I’m impressed. Their size was a big issue for us. We were trying to battle in the first half and got into a little foul trouble and it kind of let them open the gate in the first half. I don’t think NIC is a team you can come back against down 19 points. Our guys tried to fight back, but we dug too big a hole in the first half.”

In the other half of the bracket, Green River beat Umpqua 90-84 and Community Colleges of Spokane beat Grays Harbor 93-75.

Green River plays CC Spokane tonight at 7:30 at Spokane Community College in the other semifinal; Umpqua plays Grays Harbor at SCC at 5:30.

Sunday’s games are all scheduled for NIC, with the championship game set for 3 p.m.

EDMONDS

Tony Montano 2-7 0-0 5, Ricardo Maxwell 5-14 0-2 12, Thomas Pierson 2-4 0-0 5, Badhasa Margarsa 0-3 3-4 3, Tony Peloquin 1-1 0-0 2, Joey Reavley 4-8 0-0 10, Jordan Diel 0-2 0-0 0, Jacob Spade 0-2 2-2 2, Stefan Johnson 0-3 0-0 0, Destin Kawak 1-2 0-0 2, Alec Calloway 0-5 0-0 0, Shaquielle McKissic 6-11 5-9 17. Totals 21-62 10-17 58.

NORTH IDAHO

Jordan McCloud 1-5 1-2 3, Jalil Abdul-Bassit 9-10 0-0 23, Chris Sarbaugh 7-9 3-3 18, Jason Wheelock 0-2 0-0 0, Andrew Baracco 0-1 0-0 0, Keon Lewis 4-9 1-4 9, Michael Middlebrooks 5-8 2-4 12, Mikey Hope 4-7 2-2 10, Dalen Erickson 1-3 0-0 3, James Webb 4-6 0-0 8, Kaj Sherman 2-2 3-6 7. Totals 37-62 12-21 93.

Halftime — NIC 55-37. 3-point goals — ECC 6-27 (Montano 1-4, Maxwell 2-8, Pierson 1-3, Margarsa 0-2, Reavley 2-2, Spade 0-2, Johnson 0-2, Calloway 0-3, McKissic 0-1), NIC 7-12 (Abdul-Bassit 5-6, Sarbaugh 1-1, Wheelock 0-1, Lewis 0-1, Erickson 1-3). Rebounds — ECC 27 (McKissic 7), NIC 45 (Webb 10). Assists — ECC 2 (two with 1), NIC 14 (Lewis 5). Team fouls — ECC 19, NIC 15. Fouled out — none.