NIC opens tourney Wednesday

Sixth-seeded North Idaho College will open the Region 18 men’s basketball tournament against No. 3 Snow at 3 p.m. PST on Wednesday at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls.

The Cardinals (13-17, 5-13 SWAC) were idle this week. Snow (24-6, 13-5) saw its chances of winning the SWAC title end with a 71-68 loss to Southern Idaho on Friday. CSI, which beat Snow 91-77 on Saturday, will host the men’s and women’s tournaments.

The NIC-Snow winner advances to the semifinals against the winner of No. 7 Colorado Northwestern and No. 2 Salt Lake.

In Wednesday’s other opener, No. 5 Eastern Utah faces No. 4 Dixie. No. 1 CSI has a first-round bye.

NIC’s women (21-9, 12-6) will be the third seed and face No. 6 Eastern Utah (8-22, 4-14) at 3 p.m. Thursday. NIC finished in a three-way tie with Salt Lake and Dixie for second place, but Salt Lake earned the second seed via tiebreakers.

Salt Lake meets No. 7 Colorado Northwestern, and No. 4 Dixie faces No. 5 Snow in Thursday’s other openers. No. 1 College of Southern Idaho, the top-ranked team in the nation, has a first-round bye.

If NIC wins Thursday, it will face the Salt Lake-Colorado Northwestern winner on Friday.