As his players headed to the locker room at the end of the first half of Thursday’s game against Champlain, North Idaho College men’s basketball coach Hugh Watson went the opposite direction.

The tournament director wanted to chat by the scorer’s table.

“He told me, ‘You’re playing an ineligible kid out there,”’ Watson said. The player in question was backup forward Leonard Myles.

Watson quickly defused the situation.

“I told him Leonard came in for second semester and he took his GED (to become eligible),” Watson said. “He said, ‘Oh, I didn’t know that.’ I told him, ‘You should have. We called your office and you approved it.”’

Another unbeaten

NIC, which handed Champlain its first loss of the season, faces another undefeated tonight in the semifinals. San Jacinto is 35-0 and was a wrecking crew in the first half Thursday, toying with Connors State while building a 48-28 lead.

But the Ravens, loaded with size and speed, were sloppy in the second half and saw their lead slip to nine points before they pulled away. Omar Sneed, a dominating 6-foot-6 forward who signed with Memphis, poured in 25 points.

“They got us twice last year,” said NIC guard Shawn Myrick, referring to his freshman season at Jacksonville (Texas) College. Myrick, Chris Harrison and Andre McKanstry transferred from Jacksonville to NIC this year.

“We owe them one,” Myrick said. “I think our quickness will wear down anybody.”

Delay of game

The start of the NIC-Champlain game was pushed back about 20 minutes because NIC’s road gray uniforms were deemed too close in color to Champlain’s white home jerseys. NIC’s home unis are white. As the minutes clicked by, Champlain officials retrieved the school’s green tops from the team hotel.

“That wait was awful,” said Watson, who used the extra time to visit with a Champlain assistant. “I can’t help it if our colors are gray and match somebody else.”

Notes

NIC, at 30-4, has tied the school record for wins - The 1979-80 Cardinals went 30-7- and the Cards can finish no worse than fourth in the tournament. NIC’s previous best at nationals was eighth… .

Mississippi State doesn’t seem too worried about losing NIC’s Todd Myles, who has talked about reneging on his commitment. The Bulldogs are recruiting Connors State point guard Detrick White, which apparently concerned Myles. But MSU plans to move White to shooting guard and let Myles handle the point… .

, DataTimes