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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nic Victory Is Williams’ 699th Win

Jim Meehan Staff Writer

They gave Rolly Williams a plaque prior to Thursday’s game with Utah Valley, commemorating his 1,000th game as North Idaho College’s men’s basketball coach.

Better alert the engraver again. Williams is about to win his 700th game in 34 years as Cardinal coach.

Victory No. 699 came in Williams’ 1,001st game as NIC outlasted Utah Valley 88-69 in a ragtag Scenic West Athletic Conference battle at Christianson Gym. Williams’ 1,000th game actually came on the road at Ricks last weekend.

After Thursday’s win, Williams preferred to dwell on NIC’s progress rather than his personnel milestone.

“It’s starting to come together a little bit,” Williams said after NIC improved to 3-5 in the SWAC and 11-9 overall with Salt Lake due to visit on Saturday night at 7:30. “We’re doing some things better than we were earlier in the season. The main thing is we’re getting everyone to play hard.”

NIC played with great effort, though not always wisely against the Wolverines. The Cardinals were led by Teodor Russinov’s 23 points and 14 rebounds. He also did a strong defensive job on Utah Valley’s Bryon Ruffner, who scored 19 quiet points.

“Bryon looked like he was a little off his game tonight,” Utah Valley coach Jeff Reinert said of Ruffner, a sophomore transfer from Utah State who scored 42 points against Dixie earlier this season. “There’s no doubt he’s the best player in the league, but people didn’t get to see it tonight.”

Cardinal guard Jamie Snook came off the bench to score 20 points, 11 in the final 8 minutes as NIC stretched a 54-53 lead to a rather deceiving final outcome. Snook snaked down the lane for a key bucket to give NIC a 72-66 advantage with 2:35 left.

NIC reserve center Luke Palumbis chipped in seven points and nine boards. Guard Eddie Turner scored 20 points and point guard Steve Helm had 10 assists.

“Snook gave me some good minutes,” Williams said. “Palumbis came alive in the second half. He looked like he was in the twilight zone in the first half.”

He wasn’t alone. NIC fell into a 7-1 hole at the outset before recovering as Russinov racked up 14 first-half points.

But NIC’s 35-28 lead at intermission was history in the first 3 minutes of the second half. The Wolverines (5-3, 15-5) briefly pulled in front at 41-40 before Russinov’s putback in traffic gave NIC the lead 45-43.

“We’ve had that problem this year,” Reinert said. “We get behind in the first half and then use up a lot of energy catching up.”

NIC didn’t shoot particularly well (44 percent on field goals and an abysmal 20 of 39 at the foul line), and the Cardinals had 18 turnovers.

But NIC overcame its malfunctions mostly through hard work.

“It was ugly, just ugly at times,” Williams said. “But we’re getting better.”