COEUR d'ALENE - In his spare time away from classes at North Idaho College, sophomore Petar Joksimovic runs a drywall company.

His steal with 24 seconds remaining in Saturday's Scenic West Athletic Conference men's basketball game helped drive the final nail in the 16th-ranked Cardinals' 75-71 win over defending NJCAA champion and sixth-ranked Southern Idaho on Saturday night at Rolly Williams Court.

"This is a huge one for our confidence going forward," NIC coach Jared Phay said. "With us having to go back down there later this year, it was almost like a must win."

NIC (17-1, 3-0 SWAC) opened a one-game lead in the conference, with five straight road games starting Friday at Eastern Utah in Price.

"I think for us, had we dropped this one - it would have put us in the hole," said Phay, whose NIC team has won eight straight. "We were glad to get this one."

Southern Idaho (16-2, 2-1) gained the momentum midway through the first half to build a 37-31 lead at halftime.

"I was real proud of our effort tonight," Phay said. "After trailing at halftime, you never know how a team will respond."

Antoine Hosley and Keon Lewis hit back-to-back 3-pointers to put NIC up 71-65 with 1:28 remaining. After a free throw by Pat Swilling of CSI cut the deficit to 71-68, the Golden Eagles were unable to capitalize as Swilling had the ball stolen by Joksimovic.

“Petar’s steal was huge,” Phay said. “We had a couple of big stops late. They’re a talented team and we didn’t want to get into a track meet with them. I thought we could keep pushing the ball on them, but we were able to get those good looks in transition.”

NIC made 5 of 7 attempts from behind the 3-point line in the second half.

“They just shot really well from beyond the 3-point line,” CSI coach Steve Gosar said. “It was a very good game tonight between two really good teams. It’s a very hard place to win up here. They defended their court very well.”

The loss snaps a 14-game win streak by the Golden Eagles.

Lewis finished with a team-high 18 points for NIC, which outrebounded CSI 41-34.

“We had our spurts tonight, but we didn’t continue it for 40 minutes,” Gosar said. “This is such a tough league. The team that gets out of here and to nationals is going to be a well-tested team.”

SOUTHERN IDAHO

Pat Swilling 7-13 1-2 20, Fabyon Harris 6-14 0-0 16, Kevin Attila 1-1 0-0 2, Gerson Do Espirito Santo 2-4 4-6 8, Rafriel Guthrie 3-11 4-4 10, Paul Egwuonwou 0-3 0-0 0, Luke Cothron 3-10 3-5 8, Sebastien Michineau 1-3 1-2 4, Paul Bunch 1-2 0-0 2, Greg Sequele 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-61 13-20 71.

NORTH IDAHO

Jordan McCloud 2-8 3-4 8, Antoine Hosley 3-6 2-2 10, Connor White 1-4 0-0 3, Kwame Bates 1-3 0-0 2, Keon Lewis 6-9 4-6 18, Michael Middlebrooks 1-3 1-2 3, Edrico McGregor 3-5 1-2 7, Petar Joksimovic 2-9 4-4 10, Kaj Sherman 7-12 0-0 14. Totals 26-59 15-20 75.

Halftime — CSI 37-31. 3-point goals — CSI 11-21 (Swilling 5-7, Harris 4-8, Attila 1-1, Guthrie 0-3, Michineau 1-2), NIC 8-15 (McCloud 1-1, Hosley 2-2, White 1-2, Bates 0-1, Lewis 2-3, Joksimovic 2-6). Rebounds — CSI 34 (Corthon 9), NIC 41 (Sherman 7). Assists — CSI 11 (Harris 5), NIC 14 (Lewis 6). Team fouls — CSI 20, NIC 18. Fouled out — none.