North Idaho works inside to top CCS

Had the game been decided entirely on the perimeter, the Community Colleges of Spokane men’s basketball team could have hung in longer.

When North Idaho College started pounding it inside on the Sasquatch, CCS wore down. The result was a late 10-0 run leading to a 90-78 Cardinals win at Spokane CC.

Mac Hopson led NIC (10-0) with 24 points and six assists, and Frank Clair added 20 points. Erik Bell had 20 for CCS and Humberto Perez had a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards.

CCS (6-1) kept itself in the game until the 5-minute mark with good outside shooting and inspired play underneath by undersized forwards, and trailed only 77-73.

Clair, NIC’s athletic 6-foot-6 wing, racked up six straight points, four on free throws, to extend the Cardinals’ lead to 10.

After a missed jumper by CCS, one of five consecutive scoreless possessions, a Hopson layin after an NIC offensive rebound extended the lead to 12, forcing the Sasquatch to start fouling.

“We just really kind of had to pound the ball inside there for a little bit,” NIC head coach Jared Phay said. “We had a little more depth than them, and that was part of our plan, to withstand their best shot and kind of wear them down a little bit.”

NIC pulled down 15 offensive rebounds and shot 36 free throws to only 13 for the Sasquatch.

CCS was 5 of 8 from behind the 3-point line in the first half, and hung around from behind the arc and by spreading the Cardinals out and going to the basket.

That approach didn’t work late, as NIC picked up the perimeter defense. CCS hit only one 3-pointer in the last 8 minutes and missed 10 of its last 13 shots.

“We really relied on our outside shot in the first six wins,” CCS head coach Eric Hughes said. “What I harped on the guys before the game was, ‘When you’re not hitting jump shots, you’ve got to find other ways to win the game.’ “

In the first half, when NIC was without 6-10 forward Darin Nagle, 5 inches taller than anyone who played for CCS, and Clair with foul trouble, Hopson kept the Cardinals in the game with 16 first-half points.

“We were hurting with both Clair and Nagle in foul trouble,” Phay said. “Mac just ran the show and he’s been such a sparkplug all year for us. It’s nothing new.”