Cardinals Leave No Question, 108-85

NIC rips Salt Lake, saunters into tonight’s title game vs. CSI with more confidence than ever TWIN FALLS, Idaho It might have been North Idaho College’s best performance in the 1990s.

Fresh from a 108-85 thundering of Salt Lake in the Region 18 men’s basketball tournament semifinals on Friday afternoon, Cardinals coach Rolly Williams pondered the question and grinned.

“No question about it,” said Williams, whose seventh-seeded club will play in the regional title game for the first time since 1986. NIC (18-14) is one win from qualifying for nationals for the first time since 1980.

“We’re playing the way basketball is meant to be played,” Williams said.

One problem. NIC will meet an equally hot opponent. Rival and top seed College of Southern Idaho (29-3), which dominated Utah Valley (22-10) 122-113.

How confident are the Cards? Williams was asked before CSI’s game if he had a preference in the 7 p.m. PST title game at CSI’s Gym, which will probably be jammed with about 3,500 fans.

“Not really,” he shrugged. “Whoever comes along.”

In the women’s tourney, Utah Valley (28-3) stomped Eastern Utah (20-12) 93-74 and Ricks (29-2) whipped CSI (20-12) 64-53 to set up tonight’s title matchup at 5.

North Idaho 108, Salt Lake 85

There’s hot, and then there’s out-of-your-skull on fire. The latter is what it’s called when center Luke Palumbis makes a 15-foot hook shot, reserve center Tio Beall drills consecutive 3-pointers from 23 feet, and as a team, you score 30 points in 7 minutes.

“Everything clicked,” said backup guard Jamie Snook, who hit three key 3-pointers as NIC went on a 30-14 run over the last 7 minutes of the half to take a 53-37 lead.

Salt Lake had defeated NIC twice in the regular season, a fact several Bruins mentioned often to Cardinals guard Eddie Turner.

“(Brandon) Peterson and Marcel (Johnson) we’re saying, “We’re going to win,”’ Turner said. “I said, ‘Naw.’ At the end of the game, they wouldn’t shake my hand. Well, Marcel did, but not the other guy.”

Turner shook off Thursday’s 3-for-15 showing, though it took a while. He started 2 of 8, warming to finish 12 of 24. In 39 minutes, he had 30 points, seven assists, seven rebounds and one turnover.

“We have two guards who can even THINK about guarding him,” Salt Lake coach Norm Parrish said. “One on the perimeter and one inside, so he just adjusted to whoever was on him.”

NIC’s bench appeared to have a side bet on whom could provide the biggest lift.

Eric Sanchez scored 22 points. He’s shooting 15 of 19 in two games. Beall’s 3’s - “That’s no fluke, he can shoot it,” Williams said - turned many of the 450 in attendance into Card backers.

Snook had 12 of his 15 points in the final 9 minutes of the first half.

“Tio, Eric, Jamie, Luke … great guys, man,” Turner said. “I was happy with coach when he put Tio in. I have confidence in all those guys.”

Palumbis had seven points and joined starting center Roy Kruiswyk to intimidate the Bruins’ Johnson.

The Region’s top scorer at 26 points on average, Johnson rarely saw the ball against NIC’s 2-3 zone. When he did, the 6-foot-3 forward altered his shots to avoid rejection by the 6-9 Palumbis and 6-8 Kruiswyk.

Johnson had 11 points - five on foul shots - and sat out the final 12 minutes as NIC’s onslaught continued.

Coach Norm Parrish said Johnson suffered a deep thigh bruise in Thursday’s win over Eastern Utah. “He probably wouldn’t have played if it was a regular-season game,” Parrish said, but quickly adding that Johnson’s injury wasn’t to be perceived as an excuse for losing.

“North is really playing well,” Parrish said. “We tried man (defense) and a little zone, but I hate zoning because they shoot so well. We even tried a diamond-and-one, but Turner just posted up our guard.”

NIC 108, Salt Lake 85 SALT LAKE (22-10)

Robison 2-5 1-3 7, Barton 3-13 2 -2 11, Peterson 2-5 1-2 7, Welling 0-1 0 -0 0, E. Johnson 0-3 0-5 0, M. Johnson 3 -8 5-6 11, Blake 6-12 6-8 19, Sorenson 2 -7 0-0 4, Faux 6-10 4-8 16, Pinkney 5-7 0-0 10. Totals 28-70 19-34 85.

NORTH IDAHO (18-14)

Dial 0-0 0-0 0, Schultz 0-0 0-0 0, Helm 0-0 0-0 0, Snook 5-10 2-2 15, Thompson 7-12 5-5 21, Turner 12-24 5-8 30, Russinov 1-3 0-0 2, Sanchez 7-9 6-6 22, Palumbis 2-5 3-3 7, Kruiswyk 3-4 0-4 6, Beall 2-4 0-0 6. Totals 39-74 21-30 108.

Halftime-NIC 53-37. 3-point goals-Salt Lake 7-22 (Robison 2-4, Barton 3-13, Peterson 2-2, Blake 1-3) NIC 10-20 (Snook 3-8, Turner 1-2, Thompson 2-2, Sanchez 2-2, Beall 2-4). Rebounds-Salt Lake 39 (M. Johnson 8), NIC 37 (Thompson 9). Assists-Salt Lake 12 (Robison, Blake each had 3), NIC 19 (Turner 7). Total fouls-Salt Lake 27, NIC 26. Fouled out-Palumbis. Attendance-450.

CSI 122, Utah Valley 113

Ed Gray had 36 points and Rusty Yoder 29 and the topseeded Eagles made 42 of 57 free throws.

Utah Valley’s Bryon Ruffner notched 36 points. With Shawn Bankhead glued to Ruffner’s jersey, he hit three straight 3’s to narrow CSI’s lead to 99-92 with 5 minutes to go.

CSI responded by canning foul shots as five Wolverines fouled out.

Women

Second-seeded Utah Valley, which eliminated NIC on Wednesday, topped Eastern Utah 93-74, and No. 1 Ricks stopped CSU 64-53.