EPHRAIM, Utah - North Idaho College sophomore forward Renae Mokrzycki had 25 points and 15 rebounds to lead the third-seeded Cardinals past the sixth-seeded Colorado Northwestern Spartans 75-60 in the opening round of the Region 18 tournament on Thursday afternoon at Snow College.

NIC (22-9) will face second seed Southern Idaho (27-3) today at 11 a.m. in the semifinals.

CSI, which is ranked eighth in the final the NJCAA poll, beat NIC in all three matchups by an average of 17 points.

Panisesi Taimani had 11 points and 10 rebounds for NIC.

Kendra Martin had 19 points and three assists for Colorado Northwestern, which finishes 7-22.

In the other quarterfinal game, Whitney Saunders had 29 points and 15 rebounds to lead fourth-seeded Snow (14-15) past fifth-seeded Utah State-Eastern (13-17) 82-77.

Snow will play No. 1 seed Salt Lake (24-6) in the semifinals today at 4:30.

COLORADO NORTHWESTERN

Jasmine Thomas 0-2 0-0 0, Kayla Strobel 2-8 1-2 6, Adriana Trost 3-3 0-0 6, Julie Harless 1-9 2-2 5, Kehana Grayer 2-9 2-2 6, Nyahok Bile 3-7 5-12 11, Kendra Martin 5-8 8-10 19, Emoney Brown 0-1 0-0 0, Attirah Munir 3-6 1-2 7. Totals 19-53 19-30 60.

NORTH IDAHO

Georgia Stirton 1-5 3-3 5, Katie King 3-4 1-2 9, Jansen Butler 1-3 0-0 3, Bailey Schroeder 0-1 0-0 0, Ryleigh Swagerty 2-3 0-2 5, Kara Staggs 2-6 4-6 9, Sabrina Earle 1-4 2-2 4, Renae Mokrzycki 8-19 9-12 25, Caitlyn Behymer 2-6 0-3 4, Panisesi Taimani 5-9 0-0 11. Totals 25-60 19-30 75.

Halftime - NIC 38-29. 3-point goals - CNCC 3-14 (Strobel 1-3, Harless 1-7, Grayer 0-2, Martin 1-2), NIC 6-16 (Stirton 0-2, King 2-3, Butler 1-2, Swagerty 1-1, Staggs 1-4, Earle 0-1, Behymer 0-1, Taimani 1-2). Rebounds - CNCC 33 (Bile 9), NIC 43 (Mokrzycki 15) Assists - CNCC 10 (Strobel, Martin 3), NIC 18 (Staggs, Earle, Taimani 3). Team fouls - CNCC 23, NIC 25. Fouled out - Munir, Schroeder.