Region 18 seeding boils down to team’s overall wins
The College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles beat the North Idaho College Cardinals 64-58 in overtime to earn a second consecutive Scenic West Athletic Conference championship on Feb. 25 at Rolly Williams Court.
CSI led 39-23 early in the second half before the Cardinals mounted a rally. Both teams had a chance to win the game in regulation, but Antoine Hosley’s 3-pointer rolled out of the basket and Fabyon Harris’s 3-pointer was no good either.
Harris finished with a team-high 14 points for CSI.
“They hit some shots right off the bat and got rolling a little bit in the overtime period,” said head coach Jared Phay.
CSI scored the first seven points and sealed the game on four free throws by Pat Swilling to take a 63-56 lead with under one minute remaining in overtime.
“I was really happy with our efforts to be honest,” Phay said. “I know we were a little bit out of a flow offensively and we were struggling to score, but we really locked up on defense and that enable us to get back into the game. We had a chance to win at the end of regulation.”
CSI (27-3, 13-2 SWAC) will now be the No. 1 seed in the Region 18 tournament starting March 8-10 in Salt Lake City. NIC will be the No. 3 seed in the tournament after a win against Eastern Utah on March 4. The team’s 23-7 overall record put them below Salt Lake Community College when it came to seeding.
“We fell a little short, but we’re going to bounce back,” said Hosley.
Hosley scored a game-high 25 points for NIC, which lost starting guard Keon Lewis to an ankle injury early in the first half. Lewis tried to return, but was taken out of the game before the end of the first half. Freshman Kwame Bates scored 10 points in the game.
“We have to work harder, make better decisions on offense and play better defense,” Bates said. “We are as athletic as anyone. We just need to slow down and relax a little bit.”
On Feb. 28, NIC lost to Snow College 50-56. Teancum Stafford scored 21 point for Snow to lead the Badgers in the victory over NIC.
Keon Lewis scored 14 points for the Cardinals and Antoine Hosley scored 12 points. Kaj Sherman added nine points for NIC.
On Feb. 16, NIC defeated Salt Lake Community College 61-54. Antoine Hosley scored 13 points for NIC, which shot 42 percent (21 of 50) from the field.
Michael Middlebrooks had 15 rebounds and six blocked shots. Petar Joksimovic scored 12 points and Jordan McCloud added eight points. Kaj Sherman added seven points.
