NIC MEN'S BASKETBALL: Cardinals open home tourney with win

COEUR d’ALENE — Eventually, the offense was going to get going.

It did on Sunday, thanks to a strong defensive effort by the North Idaho College men’s basketball team.

Jacori Ervin, a sophomore from North Central High in Spokane, had 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench for NIC in a 94-62 win over Tacoma in the opening night of the TitleOne Classic at Rolly Williams Court.

“We told them to keep doing what we’d been doing in Las Vegas (at the JUCO Tarkanian Classic) and eventually we’d make some shots,” NIC coach Corey Symons said. “Our goal was to sit down on defense, and we were able to hold them to 21 points in the first half, which was amazing. It was a good night and we were able to get a lot of guys some minutes.”

Gage Ontiveros, a sophomore forward from Pocatello, had nine points and three rebounds for NIC (9-4).

“”We were able to use our length and able to rebound well,” said Symons, whose team limited Tacoma to 20 of 67 shooting and outrebounded the Titans (3-6) 40-34. “We just did a good job of playing on the defensive end.”

Tacoma will face Shoreline today at 5 p.m. at Rolly Williams Court, followed by NIC hosting Spokane Colleges at 7.

Spokane beat Shoreline 77-66 earlier Sunday at NIC.

TACOMA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Jakoi Lide 2-11 0-0 6, Donovan Gill 3-11 0-0 9, Dylan Wiggins 2-3 0-0 4, Samuel Taylor 4-9 2-3 11, Adem Yagmur 1-6 0-0 2, Amare Brown 0-2 4-4 4, Denali Hatcher 0-5 4-4 4, Pawlose Aschalew 3-7 0-0 7, Henry Benninghoven 3-3 2-3 10, Grant Lanier 1-7 0-0 3, Landen Glodowski 0-1 0-0 0, Creighton Pennock 1-2 0-1 2. Totals 20-67 12-15 62.

NORTH IDAHO

Ne’quan Brown 4-7 2-4 12, Nyale Robinson 3-5 0-0 8, Ajayi Simmons 2-5 1-3 6, Austin Ouko 4-9 0-0 11, Gage Ontiveros 4-4 1-1 9, Vander Brown 0-2 0-0 0, Ace Arnold 1-9 0-2 3, Cody Wright 2-4 1-2 5, Cason Miller 4-7 0-0 11, Aly Toure 4-6 4-4 12, Jacori Ervin 8-13 0-3 17. Totals 36-71 9-19 94.

Halftime – NIC 51-21. 3-point goals – TCC 10-32 (Lide 2-3, Gill 3-9, Taylor 1-4, Yagmur 0-2, Brown 0-1, Hatcher 0-1, Ashalew 1-4, Benninghoven 2-3, Pennock 0-1), NIC 13-31 (N. Brown 2-2, Robinson 2-4, Simmons 1-2, Ouko 3-6, V. Brown 0-1, Arnold 1-8, Wright 0-2, Miller 3-5, Ervin 1-1). Rebounds – TCC 34 (Lide 7), NIC 40 (Ervin 7). Assists – TCC 10 (Lide, Gill, Taylor, Hatcher 2), NIC 20 (Brown, Robinson 5). Team fouls – TCC 17, NIC 16. Fouled out – Wiggins. Technical fouls – N. Brown, Wiggins.