Men's Basketball
Cardinal men soar past CSI
The Cardinal men remained undefeated with a 91-74 win over division rivals College of Southern Idaho in front of a packed home crowd.
Right from the opening tip, team captain Brayon (BJ) Blake steered the Cardinals to victory over CSI Saturday night. Blake went on a tear, scoring the team’s first 12 points all within the first three minutes of the game. He finished with a game-high 28 points, seven rebounds, and two assists.
The Card’s guard play was sizzling as well; Lucas Antunez scored on a drive to the basket, as he got fouled at the 5:10 mark in the first half and never looked back.
He had cluttered the box score with 20 points, two rebounds, eight assists and three steals by the end of the game.
Fellow team captain, Braian Angolas-Rodas contributed with 15 points (12 in the second half), eight rebounds, seven assists and three steals. He came right out of the gate in the second half, scoring the team’s first eight points, with back-to-back three-pointers and a put-back lay in.
Not long after, Rodas took a nasty hit after being fouled and upended on a scoring attempt to the basket. In obvious pain, Rodas shook it off, hopped to his feet, and marched right back to the Cards huddle.
Braian Angola-Rodas takes a spill in the second half of the game. Rodas managed to get back into the huddle not long after the incident. He would put up 15 points for the Cardinals by the end of the game. Katie Hartwig/Sentinel
NIC guard Trey Burch-Manning had an impressive outing as well in the second half. He came off the Cardinal bench scoring 13 points eight rebounds, three assists and a steal.
“Everyone of us was focused and wanted to win, not individually, just together we wanted to win.” said Burch-Manning, “We Just wanted to go out there and prove that we really are one of the bests teams in the nation, if not the best.”
The Cardinals will hit the road for their final two away conference games against Colorado Northwester Community College and Utah State University-Eastern and then finish off at home on Feb. 20.
