The NIC men’s basketball team was led to victory Saturday night by three sophomores as they defeated their arch rival, the College of Southern Idaho Golden Eagles, of the Scenic West Athletic Conference (SWAC) 75-64 at Rolly Williams Court.
Chris Sarbaugh had six assists and was five of seven from the field scoring a game high 15 points. Keon Lewis followed with 14 points and Jordan McCloud added 13 points and nine rebounds.
“Our home crowd was amazing tonight,” said head coach Jared Phay. “Those soccer guys and volleyball girls really got things rolling. It’s great how much of a home court advantage that gives us.”
Jalil Abdul-Bassit scored 12 points in the game.
Michael Middlebrooks played in the game but was recovering from a high right ankle sprain. James Webb was also recovering from an ankle injury. Phay and the coaching staff started sophomores McCloud and Lewis to fill their roles in the starting lineup, and they delivered.
“What really set us apart from them tonight took place in the locker room,” McCloud said. “I decided to gather some of my teammates and pray to God, and lift Him up and one another in prayer so we could come out playing to the best of our abilities, have no injuries and just to glorify God in what we did. I know for a fact that’s why we came out on top tonight.”
McCloud said he didn’t find out he was starting until Friday, when his coaches told him to be ready to go.
“There were a lot of blocked shots,” McCloud said. We rotated good on offense and defense. We talked a lot in the first half, and in the second half we kind of let up. We have to stay consistent, but we are going to rejoice in this win and keep on building on it. It was fun!”
Despite his recovering ankle, Middlebrooks came off the bench and finished with eight points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots.
NIC was 19 of 31 shooting from the floor for 61.3 percent in the first half, compared to 8 of 29 for CSI (16-8, 4-6).
“I thought we defended and rebounded well tonight, especially in the first half since we weren’t giving them second chance opportunities,” Phay said. “Moving forward we just have to keep driving practice by practice and game by game, and not look too far ahead. We just need to take the next day as it comes to us, but still have the motivation to become better.”
In other SWAC games, Salt Lake (21-3, 9-1) beat Utah State-Eastern (12-12, 3-7) 77-63 and Snow (17-7, 5-5) beat Colorado Northwestern (7-18, 0-10) 76-52.
NIC (22-3, 9-1) hosts Eastern Utah Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and Colorado Northwestern Saturday at 5:00 p.m.
SOUTHERN IDAHO
Montigo Alford 3-7 0-0 6, Juwan Newman 2-6 0-0 4, Jaysean Page 6-12 3-3 15, James Reid 5-10 3-3 18, Darius Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Kareem Storey 2-4 2-2 7, Billy Reader 3-7 2-4 8, Sebastien Michineau 0-1 0-2 0, Detwon Rogers 1-6 3-6 5, Kennedy Esume 0-3 1-2 1. Totals 22-56 14-22 64.
NORTH IDAHO
Jordan McCloud 6-7 1-2 13, Jalil Abdul-Bassit 4-9 4-5 12, Chris Sarbaugh 5-7 4-4 15, Jason Wheelock 0-0 0-0 0, Andrew Baracco 0-0 0-0 0, Keon Lewis 6-14 1-2 14, Michael Middlebrooks 4-6 0-0 8, Mikey Hope 4-9 0-2 10, Dalen Erickson 0-0 1-2 1, James Webb 0-0 0-0 0, Cole Luckett 0-2 0-0 0, Nathan Rathbun 0-2 0-0 0, Kaj Sherman 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 30-57 11-17 75.
Halftime — NIC 44-19. 3-point goals — CSI 6-17 (Alford 0-1, Paige 0-2, Reid 5-9, Storey 1-1, Michineau 0-1, Rogers 0-3), NIC 4-10 (Abdul-Bassit 0-2, Sarbaugh 1-1, Lewis 1-4, Hope 2-3). Rebounds — CSI 32 (Newman, Paige 5), NIC 37 (McCloud 9). Assists — CSI 8 (Paige 4), NIC 13 (Sarbaugh 13). Team fouls — CSI 16, NIC 17. Fouled out — none.
