Stirton leads Cardinals past Spartans

After suffering two straight conference losses at home, the 21st-ranked North Idaho College women’s basketball team rebounded with a convincing 78-55 Scenic West Athletic Conference win against the Colorado Northwestern Community College Spartans Thursday night at Rolly Williams Court.

“It was good, solid zone defense tonight,” NIC head coach Chris Carlson said.

Point-guard Georgia Stirton led NIC with 18 points to go along with seven rebounds and three steals.

“Obviously after a few losses, we’ve been a little bit down, just trying to come together and stuff, so having a good win like that has just really lifted us,” Stirton said.

The Cardinals started the game on a 7-0 run before a timeout was called. They led 31-18 at halftime and did not let the foot off the gas pedal in the second half.

Freshman guard Katie King, from Post Falls, knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to extend NIC’s lead to 46-22 and 49-22 at the beginning of the second half.

King finished with seven points and led NIC with three assists.

“Katie’s just a real solid point guard, plays a great role for us,” Carlson said.

With 11:54 left in the second half, NIC’s Kara Staggs scored an old-fashioned 3-point play by getting a layup to drop and sinking the free throw after she was fouled. The Cardinals led 56-25 at that point.

Staggs had 10 points and four rebounds. Renae Mokrzycki had 12 points and eight rebounds and Panisessi Taimani scored 12 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Cardinals.

Kendra Martin led Colorado Northwestern with 20 points and nine rebounds.

NIC (17-4, 3-3) will host Utah State-Eastern Saturday at 3.