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

Nic Renews Its Rivalry With Southern Idaho

We interrupt your regularly scheduled lives to bring you one of the finest basketball rivalries in the area - North Idaho College and College of Southern Idaho.

The rivals clash tonight at 7:30 at NIC’s Christianson Gym. Rare is the blowout in this intense, CSI-dominated series that began in the late 1960s.

Tonight’s twist: NIC is going for just its third sweep of the Golden Eagles. The others came in 1979-80 and 1993-94. The Cardinals (21-3 overall, 9-3 Scenic West Athletic Conference) defeated CSI (21-4, 8-4) 79-73 in Twin Falls a month ago.

“It’s going to be a matter of basic basketball - who rebounds and plays defense,” NIC coach Rolly Williams said. “It concerns me a little because we’re not rebounding as well as we were earlier.”

NIC’s women (16-6, 6-6) will try to avenge a 56-48 loss to CSI (20-3, 10-2). Game time is 5:30.

Per usual, CSI’s men bring a bundle of talent, topped by forward Marcus Wallace (bound for San Diego State), guard Rusty Yoder (South Alabama), center Mantia Callender (Middle Tennessee State) and forward Abdul Brown (Providence).

However, CSI appears to be missing the kind of player who can simply take over a game. In recent years, such Eagles standouts as Ed Gray, Clayton Johnson, David Anderson and Craig Tyson have haunted NIC in crunch time.

, DataTimes