Men Use Defense To Seal Trip To Kansas

Memo from the North Idaho College men’s basketball team to the rest of the Region 18 Tournament teams:

Thanks for coming, hope you had some fun, sorry about the nasty, fullcourt defense.

P.S.: Keep your hands off that championship trophy.

NIC, unbeaten at Christianson Gym this season, defended every square inch of the court and ran College of Eastern Utah ragged in an 88-69 victory witnessed by a capacity crowd on Saturday night.

Next stop: Hutchinson, Kan., site of the national tournament March 18-22.

“I asked (assistant) coach Mark White with a minute or so to go, ‘Have we got this thing won?”’ Cardinals head coach Hugh Watson said. “You keep thinking they’re going to hit four or five 3s or something. Mark assured me they wouldn’t.

“I’ll tell you what, they’ve got a pretty danged good ballclub. When you beat a team like that two times (in three games), your kids have to play pretty good.”

NIC’s Todd Myles, selected the tournament MVP, said there’d be days like this. From the second he stepped on the NIC campus, the brash Brooklyn native talked about redecorating Christianson Gym with championships here, banners there.

Saturday night, Myles and his teammates walked the walk.

“I backed it up - again,” said Myles, fresh from an 11-point, 11-assist effort. With that, he cut the interview short. Something about following that time-honored championship tradition of scissoring the nets.

The Cardinals (27-4) executed their game plan from the outset. They ran at every opportunity to try to wear down CEU, which uses only seven players. NIC scored numerous transition baskets, often fueled by turnovers, and even a couple after CEU made field goals or free throws.

The Cards wanted to entice Eagles’ center K’Zell Wesson into foul trouble. He had his third foul with 7 minutes left in the first half. He picked up his fourth 19 seconds into the second half.

An added bonus NIC players might not have been aware of: Wesson was playing with a stress fracture in his foot. CEU coach Guy Beach said Wesson was probably at 60 percent.

But Beach made no excuses.

“They just took it to us,” said Beach, whose club rallied around Noel Jackson after Wesson and Arceneaux were sidelined.

NIC led 41-34 at half as Shawn Myrick struck for 12 points and Andre McKanstry 10.

Three-pointers by Myles and Myrick sent NIC on top 54-38 with 14 minutes left.

Jackson, however, erased any notion of an easy NIC win. The muscular guard slashed to the bucket for 11 points in a 7-minute stretch as the Eagles pulled within seven.

Myrick responded with a pull-up jumper and his third 3-pointer of the night to restore the lead to 73-60. CEU finally was subdued.

Myrick scored 22 points and had eight boards. McKanstry added 18 points and seven rebounds and Chris Harrison chipped in 14 points.

All-Tournament team

NIC’s Myles and McKanstry were selected to the coaches’ alltournament team announced following the game. Hugh Watson was selected Coach of the Year.

Other all-tourney selections were CEU’s K’Zell Wesson and Harold Arceneaux, Utah Valley’s Phil DeGraffenried and Ricks’ Jared Peterson.

North Idaho 88, Eastern Utah 69

Eastern Utah (28-5) - Wesson 6-13 1-2 13, Udoka 3-10 3-4 10, Arceneaux 4-9 2-3 10, Johnson 3-9 0-0 8, Gill 1-3 1-2 3, Williams 3-4 0-0 6, Jackson 9-14 1-2 19. Totals 29-62 8-13 69.

North Idaho (27-4) - Myrick 5-16 9-10 22, Johnson 2-4 0-0 4, T. Myles 4-9 2-5 11, McKanstry 8-19 2-2 18, Harrison 6-9 1-4 14, Banks 3-8 2-2 8, Ryan 2-2 3-4 7, L. Myles 2-8 0-0 4. Totals 32-75 19-27 88.

Half- NIC 41, CEU 34. 3-point goals - CEU 3-13 (Wesson 0-1, Udoka 1-5, Arceneaux 0-1, Johnson 2-5, Jackson 0-1), NIC 5-12 (Myrick 3-7, T Myles 1-2, McKanstry 0-2, Harrison 1-1) Total fouls - CEU 20, NIC 18. Fouled out - None. Technical fouls - None. Rebounds - CEU 37 (Wesson 11, Arceneaux 7), NIC 36 (Myrick 8, Banks 8, McKanstry 7) Assists - CEU 15 (Udoka 5, Johnson 5), NIC 23 (T Myles 11, McKanstry 5). Att. - 1,476.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: See related story with same headline.