NIC handles adversity
It wasn’t North Idaho College’s prettiest win of the season, but it might have been its best.
Minus two starters and facing an opponent that was ranked as recently as last week, NIC nonetheless grinded out a 63-54 women’s basketball victory over Salt Lake on Friday at Christianson Gym.
“I just told the team when you lose a good player and have another sitting on the bench, when people rise to the occasion it’s one of the great things in life,” NIC coach Chris Carlson said.
NIC improved to 20-9, 11-6 overall and remains in the hunt for second place in the Scenic West Athletic Conference. The Cardinals could make it interesting with another win over Salt Lake (19-8, 10-5) tonight at 5:30 in NIC’s regular-season finale.
The second seed is big for Region 18 Tournament purposes since No. 2 will meet Colorado Northwestern, winless in the SWAC, in the opener and avoid a probable date with No. 1 College of Southern Idaho until the championship game.
“You have to win three games at the tourney and you don’t want to play a super tough team the first night,” Carlson said. “We just need some help with Snow against Dixie.”
That help didn’t arrive as Dixie (18-9, 9-6) edged Snow. Dixie holds the tiebreaker over NIC.
Forward Sarah Dennehy, NIC’s top rebounder and second-leading scorer, left early in the first half with a high ankle sprain and wing Caitlin Courchaine sat out with a broken nose she suffered a week ago. Forward Ahlee Thomas responded with a career-high 22 points and eight rebounds while playing all 40 minutes.
Still, it wasn’t offense that fueled this win. NIC, which averages 77 points per game, was held to its third-lowest point total of the season.
NIC’s active defense limited Salt Lake to 36.1 percent shooting and forced 29 turnovers. That enabled the Cardinals to survive 36.2 percent shooting and a 17-of-32 effort at the foul line in a sometimes ragged contest that saw 46 fouls and players scrapping for loose balls on the floor throughout.
NIC didn’t get off to the best of starts. The Cards were hit with a technical foul before tipoff for incorrectly listing their starting five in the scorebook. So NIC was down 2-0 when it took the floor.
But Salt Lake’s start was more dismal – and it happened twice. The Bruins missed their first 10 shots and committed 10 turnovers before pocketing their first field goal at the 11-minute mark. They recovered to take a 26-23 halftime lead.
Salt Lake went cold again to open the second half. The Bruins committed turnovers on five consecutive possessions and didn’t crack the scoreboard until more than 6 minutes had expired. By that time, NIC led 32-26.
Thomas had six points in an 11-1 run that gave NIC a 53-41 lead.