Nic Can’T Stop Csi Duo Bates, Nelson Keep Cardinals At Safe Distance

The North Idaho College women’s basketball team climbed out of one hole, but the second-half deficit proved too deep.

Cecilie Bates and Sarah Nelson made sure NIC couldn’t recover as College of Southern Idaho caught fire offensively en route to an 81-72 Scenic West Athletic Conference victory Thursday at Christianson Gym.

Bates and Nelson combined for 26 second-half points as CSI scored a big road victory after falling to Colorado Northwestern at home last weekend.

“This is a big breakthrough win mentally,” CSI coach Joel Bate said. “We needed this to make up for (last weekend).”

CSI (13-5 overall, 5-1 league) opened a 25-12 lead through the first 12 minutes, but the Cardinals (11-4, 2-4) fought back.

A 15-1 run by NIC over the next 4 minutes was capped when Becki Huddle made two free throws to give the Cards a brief 27-26 lead. CSI regrouped to take a 33-31 lead at halftime.

Bianca Ryan gave NIC what would be its last lead at 40-39 when she hit a 3-pointer with 16:15 left in the game.

That’s when Bates and Nelson took over. Bates hit 4 of 4 3-pointers in a 12-minute span that saw the Eagles build their biggest lead at 70-53.

The closest NIC would get the final 3:44 would be eight points.

“A lot of those were `no-no-no-yes shots’,” Bate said of his dead-eye shooter. Bates scored 19 of her game-high 24 points in the second half.

Nelson finished with 15 points and post Jessica Gibbs added 17, including 13 in the first half.

“We had a stretch there where we couldn’t get any stops,” NIC coach Greg Crimp said. “We couldn’t stop Nelson and Bates. We just didn’t get enough production at the offensive end to counter what was happening to us at the defensive end.”

NIC used full-court man-to-man defense to get back in the game in the first half. CSI nearly matched its game average of turnovers (22) with 19, the majority of which were caused by the Cards.

“We haven’t seen pressure like that,” Bate said. “When they (the Cards) want to step it up they can cause a lot of problems. When we had a chance to relax we did a much better job of handling the ball in the second half.”

Unfortunately, NIC had troubles against CSI’s defense, too. The Cards, who average 17 turnovers, had 15 in the first half.

“Bates just shot the lights out, and I didn’t think we gave her that much room,” Crimp said. “We played hard and tried to make a run at them. But we gave them too many good looks and they knocked everything down.”

CSI made 19 of 35 shots from the field in the second half to NIC’s 13 of 32.

Huddle led NIC with 16 points. Bianca had 13 and Katy Shaw added 11.

Southern Idaho 81, North Idaho 72

Southern Idaho - Bates 8-13 4-6 24, Walsh 1-6 2-3 4, Nelson 6-10 2-3 15, Gabaniova 3-6 0-0 6, Gibbs 7-13 3-3 17, Barron 3-4 2-2 8, Cellan 1-4 0-0 2, Dickman 0-1 0-0 0, Peterson 0-1 0-0 0, Wegner 2-3 0-0 4, Whittaker 0-0 1-2 1, Yost 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 31-63 14-19 81.

North Idaho - Huddle 4-6 8-10 16, Lindhe 2-5 1-3 6, Nater 3-7 2-2 8, Ryan 4-11 1-2 13, Shaw 3-9 2-4 11, Middlesworth 1-1 0-0 2, Lemon 2-4 0-0 5, Cottrell 2-6 5-6 9, Broxton 0-0 0-0 0, Meece 0-0 0-0 0, Hudgens 1-3 0-0 2, Fisher 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 22-54 19-27 72.

Halftime - Southern Idaho 33, North Idaho 31. 3-point goals - Southern Idaho 5-9 (Bates 4-5, Nelson 1-1, Walsh 0-1, Cellan 0-1, Peterson 0-1), North Idaho 9-20 (Ryan 4-9, Shaw 3-5, Lemon 1-2, Lindhe 1-4). Fouled out - Gibbs, Huddle. Rebounds - Southern Idaho 28 (Nelson, Gibbs 5), North Idaho 29 (Lindhe, Nater 5). Assists - Southern Idaho 17 (Gabaniova 6), North Idaho 14 (Huddle 4). Total fouls - Southern Idaho 20, North Idaho 22. Technicals - None. A - NA.