Southern Idaho’s 3-Pointers Do In Nic Golden Eagles Gain 78-70 Victory To Tie Cardinals For Second Place

Basketball gurus across the country have debated the merit of the 3-point field goal and its effect on the game.

After their 78-70 Scenic West Athletic Conference win over North Idaho College Saturday, the College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles have decided they like the idea.

And NIC coach Rolly Williams probably rues the day they thought it up.

The Eagles seemed to come up with a trey every time they needed it, silencing every run NIC could muster and then relied on some solid free throw shooting down the stretch to outlast the Cardinals before a near-capacity crowd at Christianson Gym.

The win moved CSI (21-4 overall, 9-4 SWAC) into a tie with NIC in second place and helped the Golden Eagles avoid a sweep at the hands of the Cardinals this year.

But it certainly wasn’t easy as the Eagles had to survive a desperate NIC rally that was led by Quentin Hall.

The 5-10 freshmen guard did everything he could to prevent an NIC loss, while scoring 14 of his team’s final 17 points.

On two occasions, Hall went up and over much taller CSI opponents to snare rebounds and convert them into Cardinal points, but it was just a little too late.

CSI hit 9 of 12 free throws in the game’s final 2 minutes to put it away.

Marcus Wallace led the early charge for CSI. The 6-2 sophomore helped the visitors take a 10-4 lead, scoring eight of his 26 points during that run. But Wallace picked up his second foul after just 6 minutes and CSI coach Steve Irons elected to sit him down.

No matter.

With the score knotted at 12-12, CSI’s Andre Pleasant - Wallace’s replacement -came off the bench and hit back-to-back treys to give the Eagles an 18-12 lead.

“Andre Pleasant came in and hit those two just huge, huge 3s for us,” Irons said. “That really sparked us. NIC just kept coming at us, but we hung in there.”

Pleasant also started a 12-0 CSI run that made the score 24-12 and, if not for the inside play of NIC’s Eric Sanchez and Roy Kruiswyk, it might have been worse.

The two Cardinals combined for 16 first-half points and nine rebounds.

With the loss, North Idaho fall to 21-4 overall and 9-4 in the SWAC.

NIC was 0 for 8 in 3-point field-goal attempts in the first half and the Cards finished 4 for 20. Southern Idaho hit 8 of its 15 3-point attempts.

Hall led the Cardinals with 16 points while Kruiswyk had 11 points and seven rebounds. Troy Thompson led NIC with 10 boards.

CSI, in addition to Wallace’s 26, got 16 points from Rusty Yoder and and 12 from George Brown.

, DataTimes