The real season starts tonight for the North Idaho College men's and women's basketball teams as both travel to Colorado Northwestern to open the Scenic West Athletic Conference schedule.

"It's hard to believe it's here already," NIC men's basketball coach Jared Phay said. "We moved it up a week so that we can get a few games in before Christmas break."

NIC also travels to Price, Utah, to face the Utah State-Eastern Golden Eagles on Saturday.

Both games are available by following the link at www.nicathletics.com.

"I actually like it as a coach," said Phay of the early conference games. "It's hard to simulate SWAC play. To be able to get some conference games, have a bit of a break and then get back at it is huge."

The NIC men are 12-1 and Colorado Northwestern is 7-8. Tip-off is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. PST.

"Colorado Northwestern has played some tough teams," Phay said. "Our only common opponent was Northwest (Wyo.) College, which we beat by 10 and they did by 1. They've got some good wins under their belts."

Last season, the Cardinals fell to Colorado Northwestern on their first of two trips to Rangely.

"That's still fresh in our minds," Phay said. "They were OK with last year and had a lot of freshmen."

Utah State-Eastern has a new coach as Adjalma Becheli Jr. takes over the program from interim coach Brian Edelstein. Becheli was an assistant for Utah State-Eastern when the team finished third at the NJCAA tournament in 2010.

“They’re a real talented team,” Phay said of Utah State-Eastern. “They’re playing some good basketball right now.”

Jeff Perkins, a wing for the Golden Eagles averaging 12.4 points and 4.4 rebounds a game, is a former high school teammate of NIC sophomore Michael Middlebrooks.

“He’s very athletic,” Phay said of Perkins. “He’s another one of those guys from (Rainier) Beach (in Seattle) that can play almost anywhere on the court.”

Instead of having to travel on back-to-back nights between the schools, games will be played on Thursday and Saturday this season.

“It’s been so tough over the last couple of years,” Phay said. “We’d have to decide that night if we wanted to stay or get up really early the next day and drive the entire way there and back. Now, we at least get a travel day and I’m glad we got it to another day.”

WOMEN: Sophomore Katie Buskey is third in the conference in scoring with 12.4 points a game for the Cardinals. NIC (11-0) enters its third straight week as the top-ranked team in the NJCAA and will face Colorado Northwestern (11-4) starting at 4:30 p.m.

Georgia Stirton (10.3 points) and Kabri Emerson (10.1) are fifth and sixth, respectively, in scoring in the SWAC. Emerson is second with 8.2 rebounds a game.

Desiree Anderson is Colorado Northwestern’s leading scorer, averaging 8.7 points a game. The Spartans, out to an 11-4 start this season, lead the conference with 52.6 points allowed per game.

Colorado Northwestern won 11 games last season, the school’s most in 13 years.

Utah State-Eastern is 3-8 and hosts Southern Idaho tonight in Price.