COEUR d’ALENE — There’s nothing better than a good rivalry game on a Saturday afternoon.

Welcome to the new generation of rivalries for the North Idaho College men’s and women’s basketball teams.

“Especially since they won the conference title last year,” NIC women’s basketball coach Chris Carlson said of Community Colleges of Spokane. “They had a tremendous season last year and beat us twice last year and it’s just nice to get back on a winning streak.”

“It’s a rivalry game when we’ve got enough players,” said Spokane women’s coach Bruce Johnson, in his 21st season. “And right now, we don’t have enough players. We’re a little on the thin side right now.”

After some five decades in the far-flung Scenic West Athletic Conference, NIC’s basketball teams are in their second season in the more regional Northwest Athletic Conference.

In the women’s game, NIC sophomore Cierra Dvorak had 18 points, nine rebounds and seven steals as the Cardinals (11-7, 2-4 NWAC) beat the Sasquatch (10-7, 1-5) 75-62.

Later, RayQuan Evans hit a pair of free throws with 7.3 seconds left to push the Cardinals (14-5, 4-2 NWAC) past the Sasquatch (14-5 4-2) 85-83 after a late CCS shot attempt bounced off the back of the rim.

“This was a huge game for us,” NIC men’s coach Corey Symons said. “Not just rivalry wise, but after losing (Wednesday) to Walla Walla, it was kind of a must-win game for us.”

Prior to last season, NIC and CCS met off and on in nonconference games.

“We’re both in the league now and both competing for the same championship,” Carlson said. “Before we weren’t as much as a rival. We’ve only played them three times now (in conference games), and we’re 1-2 against them right now. I can just see it getting better, especially when these kids know each other and get a better fan turnout. There’s nothing like a good basketball rivalry.”

It’s a little different for the men’s teams, who used to co-host the annual Cardinal/Bigfoot Classic in November. Since NIC joined the league following the 2016 season, the Cardinals have opted to play in other tournaments.

“It’s always a big rivalry,” Symons said. “They want to beat us. And we want to beat them. It goes back to the (former NIC coach) Rolly (Williams) days. The tough thing for us as coaches is to teach these young guys just how important this game is and how big it is. Last year, their athletic director bought 200 tickets to get students to come to the game here and it’s a huge rivalry.”

Spokane and NIC split in men’s conference games last season, each winning on its home court.

“It’s a big-time rivalry for us,” fifth-year Spokane men’s basketball coach Jeremy Groth said. “They’ve got good players, and we’ve got good players. And we want to get each other someway. It’s the NWAC, but it’s a big rivalry. You can tell with the game too. They’re always heated and really close games. It’s just good basketball too.”

NIC’s men and women return to action at Wenatchee Valley on Wednesday.

MEN: After a combined 14 ties and nine lead changes throughout, Evans finally pushed the Cardinals past the Sasquatch.

“I try to treat each free throw the same, whether it’s in the first half or late in the game,” said Evans, a 6-foot-5 freshman point guard. “I just tried to concentrate and knock them down.”

Seth Christiaens had 16 points and 13 rebounds off the bench for NIC, which outrebounded Spokane 41-30.

“Seth was huge for us,” Symons said. “We give away game balls and he got ours today. Jarod (Greene) has been playing huge minutes for us, and we got him back tonight, but it took him a while to get going, and Seth played big. He did a great job of cleaning up the rebounds and coming up with some big plays.”

NIC finished with 17 offensive rebounds, compared to nine for Spokane. NIC is now in a four-way tie for second in the East Region at 4-2 with Spokane, Wenatchee Valley and Yakima Valley. Walla Walla leads the region at 5-1.

“This was the first conference game we’ve had our full team intact,” Symons said. “It was big for us to come out and play well and play together. RayQuan played RayQuan basketball. Jalen (Burkett, who had 17 points) came through and attacked the basket well tonight.”

Dedrick Pakootas had 20 points for Spokane, which finished 28 of 60 from the field.

“North Idaho, tip your hats to them, they made some plays down the stretch,” Groth said. “We fought extremely hard and fought our tails off, and did everything right tonight and didn’t get it done. I know we’ll get better for this and this will make us better in the long run.”

COMMUNITY COLLEGES OF SPOKANE

Lamar Harris 0-4 0-0 0, Cameron Gay 4-7 3-4 12, Dedrick Pakootas 6-9 3-5 20, Isaiah Gotell 5-6 0-0 10, Anthony Parker 0-1 2-2 2, George Pilimai 5-7 4-4 16, Ryan Alexander 4-8 0-0 11, JR Delgado 0-2 0-0 0, Cesar Sandoval 4-16 4-4 12. Totals 28-60 16-19 83.

NORTH IDAHO

RayQuan Evans 8-21 9-9 26, Brody Lundblad 0-0 0-0 0, Milan Lester 1-3 0-0 2, Aushanti Potts-Woods 1-5 4-4 7, Iaian McLaughlin 2-4 4-4 8, Jalen Burkett 7-10 3-5 17, Charles Williams 4-11 0-1 8, Jarod Greene 0-0 0-0 0, Jacob Cowley 0-0 0-0 0, Tyler Brimhall 0-0 1-2 1, Seth Christiaens 7-9 2-2 16, Keegan Crosby 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 30-65 23-27 85.

Halftime — NIC 41-39. 3-point goals — CCS 11-26 (Harris 0-2, Gay 1-3, Gotell 5-7, Pilimai 2-3, Alexander 3-6, Delgado 0-2, Sandoval 0-3), NIC 2-9 (Evans 1-3, Potts-Woods 1-4, McLaughlin 0-1, Williams 0-1). Rebounds — CCS 30 (Sandoval 7), NIC 41 (Christiaens 13). Assists — CCS 16 (Gay 6), NIC 5 (Evans 2). Team fouls — CCS 22, NIC 21. Fouled out — Brimhall.

WOMEN: Sophomore Whitney Meier sparked a 12-0 run with a 3-pointer with 3:30 remaining in the first half as NIC built a 45-26 halftime lead.

“We had some good bench play in there,” Carlson said. “We played really good in the first half. Shae (Logozzo) made some plays and Shelby (Jordan) hit some shots, but we had some more energy when we needed it. We went into the locker room feeling really good.”

NIC led by as many as 25 before Spokane closed out the third quarter on a 19-3 run to cut the deficit to 61-53 after three.

“It was a little sloppy and complacent in that quarter,” Carlson said. “But we were able to take control of the game and get the win.”

NIC forced 28 turnovers in the game, 17 in the first half.

“When we’re out there flying around, that’s where the bench comes into play,” Carlson said. “If you let Spokane set some things up, they can execute really well. They know what they’re doing and we wanted to make them scramble a little bit, and I felt like we did that tonight.”

“They played really good extending, trapping defense tonight,” Johnson said of NIC. “We’ve got all freshmen but for one girl. We’re just young and made some terrible decisions with the ball tonight. You’ve got to give it to them defensively. They played really well tonight.”

Dvorak scored four of the final six points for NIC.

“Our practices have been a lot more intense since Wednesday,” Dvorak said. “Since we haven’t been doing as well and playing as a team like we were in the nonconference schedule, we really wanted to come out and put it to them a little bit. We just wanted to win this game because they were the next team on the schedule and didn’t really focus on who it was.”

Shania Graham scored 17 points for Spokane.

COMMUNITY COLLEGES OF SPOKANE

Shania Graham 5-8 3-4 17, Jessica Olson 5-12 2-5 13, Shaye Swannack 1-7 0-0 3, Sydnee Mongeon 0-4 0-0 0, Lauren French 0-2 0-0 0, Marissa Blair 4-8 3-4 12, Rose Mongoyak 3-9 1-2 7, Alyssa Cox 5-7 0-1 10. Totals 23-57 9-16 62.

NORTH IDAHO

Lana Berg 3-4 1-2 7, Cierra Dvorak 7-19, 4-8 18, Ronnie Harris 2-12 0-0 4, Shae Logozzo 1-2 0-0 3, Shelby Jordan 2-2 0-0 4, Whitney Meier 7-16 3-4 19, Zosha Krupa 1-5 0-0 3, Gia Sorn 0-2 0-0 0, Kelsey Auer 2-8 0-0 5, Sydney Hovde 1-4 10-10 12. Totals 26-74 18-24 72.

Spokane 16 10 27 9 — 62

North Idaho 26 19 16 14 — 75

3-point goals — CCS 7-24 (Graham 4-6, Olson 1-6, Swannack 1-6, Mongeon 0-4, Blair 1-2), NIC 5-17 (Dvorak 0-3, Harris 0-3, Logozzo 1-2, Meier 2-4, Krupa 1-3, Auer 1-2). Rebounds — CCS 43 (Mongoyak 7), NIC 46 (Hovde 12). Assists — CCS 17 (Swannack 10), NIC 9 (Harris 4). Team fouls — CCS 19, NIC 15. Fouled out — Olson.