COEUR d'ALENE - As North Idaho College men's basketball coach Jared Phay said following Thursday's 89-76 win over Snow College, "Any conference game is an important one, but the ones at home are the ones you've got to have."

Freshman Brad Wallace scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting as the Cardinal men beat the Badgers 89-76 in their Scenic West Athletic Conference home opener at Rolly Williams Court.

"Brad's been a sparkplug for us," Phay said. "We like him in that sixth-man role and have started him a few games. It's nice to turn to the bench and know you've got some offense coming in there."

Earlier, point guard Georgia Stirton scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Cardinal women past the Badgers 68-57.

"I thought we played pretty well and moved the ball around really well," Stirton said. "We're starting to come together a little more as a team and making plays."

NIC led 26-20 at halftime before pulling shooting 54.5 percent (12 of 22) in the second half to pull away.

"It was like the holiday blues or something," NIC coach Chris Carlson said. "It was a really low scoring game for a long time. It was kind of ugly, but I was glad we were able to keep going and get a bit of a lead there and put them away in the end."

MEN: Wallace, a 5-foot-11 point guard from Lacey, Wash., shot 3 of 6 from beyond the 3-point line, all coming in the second half.

"We've got a lot of players that are capable of scoring the ball," Wallace said. "Tonight just happened to be my night and I had it rolling from mid-range. It's a fun atmosphere to play in with everyone running the court and people finishing."

NIC (15-3, 2-1 SWAC) finished the game 30 of 58 from the field, and outrebounded Snow 39-31.

"I think we've adjusted to the officiating and how the whistle is being blown, and officials are too," Phay said. "In our defense, it's been a little tough, but that's who we are. We need to get the ball inside to Braxton (Tucker) and our bigs to get some easy looks. I think some of that percentage is that we're unselfish and moving the ball around a lot more."

NIC took a 31-28 lead on a 3-pointer by Braxton Tucker with a little over three minutes remaining in the first half and never trailed again, taking a 44-31 halftime lead.

Tucker finished with 16 points and Will Dorsey had 17, 14 of those coming from the foul line.

"Will can score in a variety of ways," Phay said. "He's just kind of tough to guard. We were fortunate to get the big lead at the half."

Walter Wright scored 16 points for Snow (9-7, 0-2).

"I thought we played well the first 10 minutes," Snow coach Robert Nielson said. "They hit some shots and we didn't execute on offense and had a couple of breakdowns on defense that led to them getting a big lead. We worked hard to get it back to five points in the second half, but they made a few more plays to extend it out."

In other SWAC play, No. 15 Southern Idaho (15-2, 2-1) beat Salt Lake (14-3, 1-1) 64-61 in Twin Falls.

NIC hosts Salt Lake on Saturday at 5 p.m.

SNOW COLLEGE

Gentry Thomas 3-9 1-2 9, Lejon Johnson 3-5 0-0 9, Walter Wright 6-12 2-2 16, Tim Hughes 1-3 0-0 3, Chandler Smith 2-9 2-2 8, Anthony Morris 7-10 3-3 17, Larenz Stalcup 1-3 0-0 2, Blake Truman 1-5 0-0 2, Lawrence Pierce 1-5 0-0 2, Marcus Bryce 2-2 0-0 4, Nate Aland 2-3 0-1 4. Totals 29-66 8-10 76.

NORTH IDAHO

Jason Wheelock 0-1 0-0 0, Braxton Tucker 8-14 0-0 16, Brad Wallace 8-11 2-2 21, Bryce Leavitt 4-6 1-2 9, Nathan Rathbun 0-0 0-0 0, Will Dorsey 1-9 14-15 17, Cole Kesler 2-5 4-5 9, Fuquan Niles 2-2 3-4 7, Tatafu Nuku 0-0 0-0 0, Jordon King 3-6 0-0 6, Shikei Blake 1-3 0-1 2, Ty Higbie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 30-58 24-29 89.

Halftime - NIC 46-31. 3-point goals - Snow 10-28 (Thomas 2-6, Johnson 3-5, Wright 2-6, Hughes 1-3, Smith 2-6, Truman 0-2), NIC 5-17 (Wheelock 0-1, Wallace 3-6, Leavitt 0-1, Dorsey 1-4, Kesler 1-3, King 0-2). Rebounds - Snow 31 (Thomas, Morris 6), NIC 39 (Niles 10). Assists - Snow 16 (Wright, Pierce 4), NIC 17 (Leavitt 6). Team fouls - Snow 21, NIC 12. Fouled out - none. Technical fouls - Snow bench.

WOMEN: Stirton scored 14 of her 23 in the second half, including 8 of 9 free throws.

"We had a lot of free throw attempts tonight," Carlson said. "I didn't think we were really sharp out there, but we did some good things."

Kara Staggs scored 13 points, Jansen Butler 10 for NIC (16-2, 2-1).

"Georgia created a lot of offense for us tonight, and ended up with 23 herself," Carlson said. "Jansen hit a couple of big shots."

NIC made 22 of 38 from the foul line, compared to 6 of 15 for Snow, which falls to 0-2 in conference play.

"It wasn't a very pretty game on either end," Snow coach Natalie Visger said. "We had a lot of turnovers and missed shots."

In other SWAC play, Salt Lake (13-4, 2-0) beat No. 6 Southern Idaho (13-2, 2-1) 70-58 in Twin Falls.

"That's a big win for them on the road," Carlson said. "It should be a fun one on Saturday."

Emily Howey scored 20 points for Snow (7-8, 0-2).

SNOW COLLEGE

Hailey Greenwood 0-4 0-2 0, Amber Daly 1-7 0-0 2, Madison Roe 0-1 0-0 0, Sydney Jenkins 2-5 0-3 4, Whitney Saunders 1-4 1-2 3, Ashton Henderson 1-6 0-2 2, Catherine Killian 2-7 0-0 5, Mackenzie Bruggeman 2-2 2-2 6, Jillian Powell 6-9 0-0 15, Emily Howey 9-11 2-5 20, Lyssa Hanks 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-56 5-16 57.

NORTH IDAHO

Georgia Stirton 7-10 8-9 23, Katie King 0-1 0-0 0, Jansen Butler 3-8 3-5 10, Bailey Schroeder 1-2 1-5 3, Morgan Grier 1-2 1-2 3, Kara Staggs 4-8 3-4 13, Sabrina Earle 0-0 0-0 0, Renae Mokrzycki 1-7 5-9 7, Caitlyn Behymer 1-4 1-4 3, Panisessi Taimani 3-5 0-0 6. Totals 21-47 22-38 68.

Halftime - NIC 26-20. 3-point goals - Snow 4-9 (Greenwood 0-2, Daly 0-1, Henderson 0-1, Killian 1-2, Powell 3-3), NIC 4-16 (Stirton 1-2, King 0-1, Butler 1-4, Staggs 2-4, Mokrzycki 0-2, Behymer 0-1, Taimani 0-1). Rebounds - Snow 36 (Howey 9), NIC 36 (Mokrzycki 10). Assists - Snow 11 (Henderson 3), NIC 9 (Stirton 4). Team fouls - Snow 30, NIC 19. Fouled out - Henderson, Powell.