The regular season winds down this weekend for both the North Idaho College men's and women's basketball teams with a road trip to Rangely, Colo., to face Colorado Northwestern on Friday night.

NIC's women wrapped up the conference championship last weekend, while the men are in a three-way tie for second place entering the final weekend.

Men: Snow (22-7, 9-5 SWAC) can secure the No. 2 seed and an opening round bye with a win against Salt Lake (20-7, 8-6) on Saturday in Ephraim, Utah.

If Salt Lake wins and NIC (21-7, 8-6) beats Colorado Northwestern on Friday and Utah State-Eastern Utah on Saturday, NIC will be the No. 2 seed and play Snow in a semifinal game.

With a sweep, NIC would be the No. 3 seed and Salt Lake the No. 4 and open with No. 5 seed Colorado Northwestern (6-20, 1-12) next Thursday in Salt Lake City.

"We need to focus on Friday night first," NIC coach Jared Phay said. "They're (Salt Lake-Snow) playing at the same time on Saturday, so we won't have an idea of what is going until we're done."

NIC will return from the road trip on Sunday and go back to Utah for regionals on Tuesday night.

"We'll be coming back on Sunday to at least get a couple days of school in," Phay said. "But we're busing all night starting Tuesday to get there. That's why it's a little more important for us to take care of business tonight."

Colorado Northwestern, which will be the No. 5 seed, will face the No. 4 seed next Thursday. Utah State-Eastern is ineligible for postseason play.

"This is their last game period, this season," Phay said. "They're going to play really hard and want to go out on a high note. I'm sure we'll be in for a battle on Saturday."

Southern Idaho (25-3, 11-2) wrapped up the conference championship with a 64-58 win in overtime at NIC last Saturday.

NIC beat Utah State-Eastern 74-71 in overtime on Jan. 20 in Price, Utah, and lost to Colorado Northwestern 74-69 the following night in Rangely, Colo. It was the Cardinals’ first loss at Colorado since 1998.

When those teams visited Coeur d’Alene, the Cardinals beat Colorado Northwestern 81-51 on Feb. 9 and Utah State 81-78 in triple OT on Feb. 11. NIC is second in the conference in scoring with 68.7 points a game, while Utah State-Eastern and Colorado are at the bottom with 63.5 and 59.9, respectively.

NIC guard Keon Lewis, who injured his ankle in Saturday’s game, is expected to play this weekend.

“He practiced a little bit today,” Phay said. “We think he’ll play, but we know he won’t be 100 percent — but he’ll give us some minutes.”

Women: The Cardinals (22-4, 11-2 SWAC) wrapped up the conference championship last weekend with a 69-63 win last Saturday and will be the No. 1 seed to the Region 18 tournament starting next Thursday at Salt Lake City.

NIC, ranked seventh in this week’s NJCAA polls, concludes the regular season at Colorado Northwestern on Friday and Utah State-Eastern Utah on Saturday.

With a win by Snow (14-12, 9-5) against Salt Lake on Saturday, the Badgers will clinch the second seed and other opening-round bye. Southern Idaho (15-13, 7-6) is currently third and Salt Lake (16-11, 7-7) is fourth.

Utah State-Eastern Utah (14-14 6-7) needs a win against NIC and CSI to move from the fifth seed, while Colorado Northwestern (10-18, 0-13) will be the sixth seed.

NIC is second in the conference in scoring with 68.7 points a game, while Utah State-Eastern and Colorado are at the bottom with 63.5 and 59.9, respectively.

Priscila Santos leads the league in scoring with 29.5 points a game for Utah State-Eastern, which has lost six of its previous seven games.

Games on both Friday and Saturday will be available via webcast at www.nicathletics.com.