Nic Women Bow, And How Central Arizona Shows Cardinals To Loser’s Bracket With 89-55 Win

A note to our readers: The box score of the North Idaho College women’s basketball team’s 89-55 loss to Central Arizona can stand alone in lieu of story.

Seriously. Not much more is needed to detail the shellacking administered by Central Arizona in an NJCAA Division I quarterfinal game Wednesday evening at Tyler Junior College.

Let’s see if NIC coach Greg Crimp can explain what happened.

“They kicked our fannies,” he said.

That’s a good start.

“In every aspect of the game,” Crimp said.

OK. Anything else?

“They were bigger, quicker, stronger; they outran us, outrebounded us and defended very well,” Crimp added.

P.S.: “We couldn’t stop them either. We couldn’t match with a man and we couldn’t stop them in a zone.”

The good news is NIC (28-5) doesn’t have to play Central Arizona (31-1) tonight. The bad news is the Cardinals meet perennial national qualifier Louisburg of North Carolina (28-2), which led by 20 points in the second half over defending champion Trinity Valley (32-2) before collapsing in the final 7 minutes.

So what did Crimp tell his team after its worst loss of the season?

“I told them we got to the final eight for the first time ever,” he said. “We’re ranked 14th, we’re 28-5 and they shouldn’t hang their heads. I just said we need to come back and give a better account of ourselves against Louisburg.”

The Cardinals still have much to play for. A win tonight in the loser-out game - tipoff is at 6 PST gives NIC an opportunity to play for a trophy on Saturday.

There was no comeback in the Cards after halftime Wednesday, as has been recent routine.

But Crimp had to be wondering if his Cards would come back for the loser-out game and not suffer from emotional blues.

“They didn’t quit tonight,” Crimp said answering the question in a round-about way.

Compounding NIC’s problem of facing a much more talented team than itself was the Cards’ problems.

NIC opened slowly for a second straight night. Central Arizona used 8-0, 11-0 and 10-0 runs for a 38-20 lead at intermission.

The Cardinals had few good looks at the basket and even fewer opportunities to shoot.

Consider these statistics:

NIC made 7 of 35 shots from the field in the first half, and it ended up taking 17 fewer shots overall than Central Arizona.

NIC committed 27 turnovers. And speaking of opportunities, Central Arizona lived in the front-court the majority of the time as the Vaqueras outrebounded the Cards 52-34.

The Cards were more than up to their eyebrows with the task of playing with Central Arizona. But as it turned out, they were in over their heads.

And even if NIC had played well to above average, Central Arizona would have won going away.

“I think we match up better against Louisburg,” Crimp said. “They’re awfully quick, but I don’t think they’re as big (as Central Arizona). Big was a huge factor tonight.”

Crimp sees Central Arizona giving Trinity Valley more than a tussle in the semifinals Friday.

“They’ve got the whole package,” Crimp said. “They’ve got shooters, they’ve got quickness, they’ve got size, they’ve got depth and they’re well-coached. Sometimes when it gets on the downhill slide like that you can’t stop it. It’s an avalanche.”

Central Arizona had five players in double figures. Sara Ossana and Shandy Robbins led with 16 points each.

Mandy Jacques made two late 3-pointers to keep the final margin from being worse. Her 12 points led NIC.

Cental Arizona 89, NIC 55

NORTH IDAHO COLLEGE (28-5) - Rehder 2-2 0-1 4, Goyne 1-7 0-0 3, Jacques 4-11 1-2 12, Richards 0-3 2-2 2, Dickson 0-3 0-0 0, Viebrock 0-2 0-0 0, Albers 0-0 0-0 0, Nearing 1-8 2-2 4, Roylance 1-1 0-0 2, Rainer 5-15 1-3 11, Clark 1-2 0-0 2, Shepard 1-1 0-1 2, Jensen 1-3 1-1 3, Dowhy 3-6 4-6 10. Totals 20-64 11-18 55.

CENTRAL ARIZONA (31-1) - Gamez 0-3 0-0 0, Seitz 3-6 3-4 12, Morelock 4-7 3-3 11, Robbins 5-12 5-6 16, Ossana 7-13 0-0 16, German 0-4 0-1 0, Knox 2-7 2-2 6, Kincaid 0-0 0-0 0, Johns 1-3 0-0 2, Whitfield 3-7 0-0 0, Brown 7-14, 1-1 15, Green 2-5 1-2 0-0. Totals 34-81 15-19 89.

Halftime - C 38, NIC 20. Fouls - C 16, NIC 17. Fouled out - N, Richards. Technicals - none. 3-pointers - C 6-14 (Seitz 3-3, Ossana 2- 4, Robbins 1-4); NIC 4-14 (Jacques 3-6, Goyne 1-3). Rebounds - C 52 (Robbins 8), NIC 34 (Nearing 8). Assists - C 23 (Johns 7), NIC 9 (Richards 2). Steals - C 15 (Brown 4), NIC 6 (Goyne 3). Attendance - 200, estimate.

Wednesday’s scores

Quarterfinals:

Trinity Valley 78, Louisburg 71;

Weatherford 85, Copiah-Lincoln 60;

Central Florida 98, John A. Logan 64.

Consolation:

Moberly 80, North Dakota-Lakes Region 54.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo