Nic Earns A Share Of First Place Cardinals Claim Road Victory With Balanced Effort Vs. Csi

Relying on what coach Rolly Williams called a “total team effort,” North Idaho College claimed a rare road victory against College of Southern Idaho on Friday night.

NIC knocked off the second-ranked Eagles 79-73 to move into a first-place tie in the Scenic West Athletic Conference men’s basketball standings.

The Cardinals improved to 4-1 in the SWAC and 15-1 overall. They share first with Utah Valley, which dropped to 4-1 after losing to Dixie 106-82 on Friday. CSI is 2-2, 14-2.

NIC received strong production from its bench as reserve guard Quentin Hall went 7 of 7 from the field and scored a team-high 18 points. Forward Troy Thompson had 15 points, guard Darnell McCoy 13 and center Roy Kruiswyk had 11 and nine rebounds..

“It was a great ballgame,” Williams said. “We had a lot of effort out of a lot of people. We played 10 in the first half and 10 in the second half.”

The Cardinals hit 12 of 23 3-pointers, led by three each from McCoy and Thompson.

“We’ve been saving those (3s) for these guys,” Williams mused. CSI was just 2 of 14 on 3-pointers.

NIC expanded a nine-point halftime lead into double digits before CSI stormed back late in the game.

“We responded when we had to because they made some runs at us,” Williams said. “Our kids hit some free throws and Kruiswyk hit a key bucket.”

NIC’s last win at Twin Falls was in the 1993-94 season.

The Cardinals visit Treasure Valley in Ontario, Ore., tonight. Treasure upset Ricks 72-56 on Friday. In other results, Snow (3-2, 13-4) beat Salt Lake (1-3, 12-4) 74-71 and Eastern Utah (3-2, 14-3) drubbed Colorado Northwestern (1-4, 5-8) 106-75.