The North Idaho College men’s basketball team won its last five games going into the championship game against Community Colleges of Spokane in the Bigfoot Classic at Spokane Community College Dec. 8. Two of the wins came against Blue Mountain Community College and Columbia Basin College at home.
NIC displayed big offense against Columbia Basin Tuesday, Dec. 3, beating the Hawks 100-86.
“We didn’t shoot the ball that good,” NIC head coach Jared Phay said. “It was kind of a grind-out, but we found a way to win.”
NIC freshman Will Dorsey scored 26 points. “My team got me open a lot,” Dorsey said.
A big alley-oop from Dorsey to freshman forward Jordon King really got the momentum flowing the Cardinals’ way as they crept ahead.
Columbia Basin had a couple aces up their sleeve as well. Keeping the ball on the perimeter, guard James Lopez, who scored 11 points, hit a few 3-pointers in the first half to bring the Hawks ahead 31-29 by the 10-minute mark of the first half.
As Columbia was using the outside to their advantage, the Cardinals answered by going to the paint and scoring. By the end of the first half, Columbia Basin was up by two with a 47-45 lead.
Freshman point-guard Brad Wallace started sinking 3-pointers for NIC and brought the score to 61-56 in favor of the Cardinals.
NIC extended its lead to 84-75.
“We’re a young team and every game we are getting a lot better,” Dorsey said.
Against Blue Mountain, Leavitt scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead the Cardinals past the Timberwolves 89-70 Dec. 1.
“I think our depth was big,” Phay said. “We can kind of go to our bench and we don’t really have a drop off there and I think when they go to their bench there’s a little bit of a drop off.”
Braxton Tucker also scored 19 points to go along with five rebounds and Dorsey had 18 points, 3 assists and 3 steals.
The game stayed close in the first half until NIC went on a 10-0 scoring run. The Cardinals led the Timberwolves 45-34 at halftime after Dorsey’s drive to the basket and layup as time ran out to end the half.
In the second half, freshman forward Shikei Blake extended NIC’s lead to 55-46 on an inbounds play. He passed the ball off of a defender’s back and dunked.
“Our speed helped us a lot,” Leavitt said. “We had a lot of guys that would run the court. We have a lot of quick guys and we were able to just get out and outrun them a little bit and outwork them a little bit towards the end of the game.”
