NIC BASKETBALL: A tough five or 10 for Cardinal men ... Top-ranked Snow wins by 24; NIC women win

By JASON ELLIOTT 

Sports writer 

COEUR d’ALENE — For 30 minutes on Saturday, the North Idaho College men’s basketball team outplayed top-ranked Snow College of Ephraim, Utah. 

But the first five minutes of the game, and the final five of the first half, that’s why the Badgers sit at the top of the NJCAA rankings. 

Sam Sivulich, a sophomore point guard from Ogden, Utah, scored a game-high 25 points in a reserve role as Snow beat NIC 106-82 in a Scenic West Athletic Conference game at Rolly Williams Court. 

“There’s a reason they’re No. 1 in the country,” NIC coach Corey Symons said. “We tried to make the guys understand that they’re not going to beat themselves. They don’t make a lot of mistakes, and when you make mistakes, they make you pay.” 

In the women’s game, sophomores Chloe Collin and Summer Faleafa scored 13 points each for the Cardinals (7-10, 2-3 SWAC) in a 63-45 win over the Badgers (13-7, 1-4). 

MEN: North Idaho closed to within 35-29 on a free throw by freshman Ace Arnold with 3:46 remaining in the half, but the Badgers closed the half on an 18-2 run to lead 53-31 at the break.

“We do a thing with our staff where we track five-minute intervals,” Symons said. “We lost the first, and every five-minute interval outside of the last five minutes of the half — where we lost by 20 — we won. We literally beat them for 30 minutes, but for those 10 minutes, they kicked our tails. We had a lot of good stuff. But there was a 10-minute stretch where they kicked our tail.” 

Snow shot 12 of 29 from the 3-point line and 26 of 44 from the free throw line. 

“It was a good stretch where the ball moved and we strung some stops together,” Snow coach Andrew May said. “We really shared the ball, and that’s been a theme of our team since I’ve been the coach. Our guys did a great job of embracing that to another level today.” 

“They’re huge and deep, they’re really deep,” Symons said. “They’ve got 12 guys that are just as good as their 1 and 2’s. We beat them on the glass and did a better job of controlling the turnovers. They shot twice as many free throws as us, and that doesn’t help. But they’re a really good team, and you’ve really got to take advantage of their mistakes, or they’ll make you pay. 

Symons was ejected in the final minutes of Thursday’s game against Utah State-Eastern and believed that meant he would be suspended for Saturday’s game. But due to an NJCAA rule change this season, Symons was allowed to be on the bench for Saturday’s game after learning on Friday that the incident didn’t meet the criteria for a one-game suspension. 

“Yesterday our AD Shawn (Noel) called us in after practice and we had a meeting,” Symons said. “They changed the rule where an ejection isn’t a suspension unless it’s volatile, like chasing them or throwing a chair. So, a regular ejection isn’t a suspension.” 

Ne’quan Brown, a sophomore from Tacoma, Wash., scored 25 points for NIC. 

McCaden Adams scored 16 points for Snow.

SNOW 

Blake Bahr 2-3 1-1 5, McCaden Adams 5-8 4-6 16, Sean Felts 4-8 4-6 13, Brock McClure 4-9 3-7 12, Aaron Bliss 3-4 1-3 7, Max Toombs 3-4 0-0 8, Sam Sivulich 8-11 4-9 25, Keagan Caton 0-2 0-0 0, Jackson Rose 0-2 0-0 0, Kyle Lemke 3-6 4-4 10, Bron Roberts 1-4 3-6 6, James Rust 1-4 2-2 4. Totals 34-65 26-44 106. 

NORTH IDAHO 

Ne’quan Brown 9-20 3-3 25, Nyale Robinson 1-4 0-0 2, Austin Ouko 6-13 3-5 19, Gage Ontiveros 3-5 1-2 7, Aly Toure 3-4 0-0 6, Vander Brown 0-0 1-2 1, Ace Arnold 4-5 1-2 11, Cody Wright 0-2 0-0 0, Cason Miller 0-2 0-0 0, Sawyr Hansen 1-2 0-1 2, Justus Haseley 0-5 2-2 2, Jacori Ervin 2-4 3-5 7. Totals 29-66 14-22 82. 

Halftime — Snow 53-31. 3-point goals —Snow 12-29 (Bahr 0-1, Adams 2-4, Felts 1-2, McClure 1-4, Bliss 0-1, Toombs 2-3, Sivulich 5-7, Caton 0-1, Roberts 1-4, Rust 0-2), NIC 10-30 (N. Brown 4-11, Robinson 0-3, Ouko 4-8, Arnold 2-2, Wright 0-1, Miller 0-1, Haseley 0-3, Ervin 0-1). Rebounds — Snow 37 (McClure 10), NIC 38 (Toure 8). Assists — Snow 18 (Adams, Sivulich 5), NIC 13 (Robinson 4). Team fouls — Snow 26, NIC 25. Fouled out — Toombs, N. Brown. Technical fouls — Miller, Ervin. 

WOMEN: NIC outscored the Badgers 20-8 in the third quarter, starting with an 18-3 run through the first six minutes, to pull away.

“Defense is something that I take pride in,” NIC coach Nathan Covill said. “I want our teams to be tough and resilient. And it’s taken us a while to get there, but I felt like after CSI and taking some lumps, the girls have really dived into the scout and really preparing and understand the actions that we’re trying to take away.”

NIC fell 58-46 to Utah State-Eastern on Thursday.

“We were really good against Utah State-Eastern in parts of the game, and then tonight we played good in the first half, but the third quarter was outstanding,” Covill said. “Even when we had a lapse, we didn’t panic and got the ball to Chloe or Summer and they were really patient. Those are the areas where we haven’t been as prepared.”

Karsyn Freeman, a freshman from Adna, Wash., had 12 points and three assists and Diana Nelson, a freshman from Timberlake High, had nine points and seven rebounds for NIC.

“We’ve got to continue to get better on defense,” Covill said. “We learned how to trust each other on offense and share the ball. We did a good job of being patient, even when the shot clock was running down. Sometimes, we’ve been a little inpatient and taking one shot or two shots off a pass.”

Avery Allred scored 11 points for Snow.

SNOW

Sara Aoki 2-9 0-0 4, Megan Johnson 3-8 0-0 6, Sydnee Smith 1-5 0-2 2, Lala Baldwin 3-8 0-0 7, Avery Allred 3-9 5-6 11, Dalana Jakovlijevic 1-6 2-8 4, Seini Tuipulotu 0-3 0-0 0, Hartlynn Richins 3-4 1-1 7, June Olsen 0-0 0-0 0, Kysa Shippen 0-2 0-0 0, Hillary Akomastri 1-5 0-0 2, Mckenna Garner 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 18-60 8-15 45.

NORTH IDAHO

Chloe Collin 4-12 4-4 12, Karsyn Freeman 5-12 0-0 12, Diana Nelson 2-8 5-6 9, Ripeka Edwards 3-4 2-2 9, Summer Faleafa 4-11 4-4 13, Molly Axell 0-1 0-0 0, Liv Whitemarsh 2-2 0-0 6, Sari Murphy 0-3 1-2 1, Kaytie Aanstad 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-54 16-18 63.

Snow    9    13    8    15    –    45

North Idaho    13    12    20    18    –    63

3-point goals – Snow 1-12 (Aoki 0-3, Smith 0-1, Baldwin 1-4, Allred 0-1, Tuipulotu 0-1, Shippen 0-1, Akomastri 0-1), NIC 7-19 (Collin 1-6, Freeman 2-2, Edwards 1-2, Faleafa 1-5, Whitemarsh 2-2, Murphy 0-2). Rebounds – Snow 35 (Johnson 8), NIC 37 (Collin, Edwards 9). Assists – Snow 9 (Johnson, Allred 2), NIC 8 (Freeman 3). Team fouls – Snow 20, NIC 21. Fouled out – none. 

    JASON ELLIOTT/Press North Idaho College freshman forward Austin Ouko drives to the basket during the second half of Saturday's Scenic West Athletic Conference game against Snow at Rolly Williams Court.
  

    JASON ELLIOTT/Press North Idaho College sophomore guard Ripeka Edwards pulls down a rebound in front of Snow's Sara Aoki during the second half of Saturday's Scenic West Athletic Conference game at Rolly Williams Court.