Bruins clamp down on Cardinals

The Salt Lake Community College men’s basketball team ranked No. 1 in the nation in defense last year.

It was the key reason why Salt Lake advanced to the NJCAA championship game.

The Bruins aren’t at a nation-leading level at this point, but the defense they played Thursday was more than good enough to spoil North Idaho College’s home Scenic West Athletic Conference opener.

Seventh-ranked Salt Lake remained undefeated in the SWAC with a 73-62 win over the 13th-ranked Cardinals at Rolly Williams Court.

The Bruins (17-1 overall, 4-0 SWAC) are ranked eighth in the nation this year.

“We’re getting there,” SLCC coach Norm Parrish said. “Last year was pretty magical. They haven’t fully bought in, but this was good for us.”

Truth be told, NIC helped make the Bruins look like a top-ranked defensive unit.

The Cardinals (17-2, 2-2), who average 12 turnovers per game, committed a season-high 16 in the first half and finished with 21.

“Give a little bit of credit to Salt Lake because they guard you, but I don’t know where our heads were tonight,” NIC coach Jared Phay said. “Some of the turnovers we were making are just basic fundamentals – passes we shouldn’t be throwing and trying to force it too much. I’m kind of at a loss for words on that.”

Compounding matters for the Cardinals was the fact that SWAC-leading scorer and University of Idaho-bound guard Shawn Henderson had his worst game of the season. He made his first shot of the game – a 3-pointer from 23 feet at the 17:05 mark – then proceeded to miss his next 11 shots. A few of the shots were forced.

“When we get down, he knows he’s our best player and I think he starts to try doing too much and force the issue,” Phay said. “He needs to not do that. He needs to have faith in his teammates and let the game come to him more.”

Parrish said his team didn’t do anything special to defend Henderson, who had a season-low three points.

“I’d like to say we did a lot, but I think he just missed some shots,” Parrish said. “We were obviously aware of him and tried to guard him a little bit before he caught it. Then we just tried to make sure we had help. I thought our kids collapsed on the ball really well.”

More than anything, Parrish said, his team concentrated on defending all of the Cardinals.

“We took away their first couple of options on most of their things,” Parrish said. “(Renado Parker) hurt us early, and I thought in the second half we doubled down on him a little better.”

The 6-foot-6 Parker gave NIC hope in the opening half, scoring 10 of his game-high 19 points on 5-of-5 shooting.

A 15-10 spurt by the Bruins allowed them to open a 47-36 lead with just more than 12 minutes to go. NIC didn’t get closer than eight thereafter.

Five players scored in double figures for the Bruins. D.J. Wright led with 15 points. He also had a team-high 13 rebounds as SLCC dominated NIC on the boards (47-27).

NIC will try to snap its two-game skid Saturday when Snow College visits at 5 p.m.