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NIC women’s basketball team loses in conference championship game

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NIC women’s basketball team loses in conference championship game

The second-seeded North Idaho College women’s basketball team lost by two points in the NJCAA (National Junior College Athletic Association) Region 18 basketball tournament against the College of Southern Idaho at Rolly Williams Court Saturday night 57-55.

Angela Woods had a 3-pointer in the first half to put NIC up 15-9.

Woods led the Cardinals with 14 points to go along with three rebounds.

CSI is a really good team,” NIC head coach Chris Carlson said. “They were really fighting for something today, and we were too, but CSI always finds a way to win.”

NIC trailed CSI at the half 29-25.

NIC’s Georgia Stirton hit a three in the second half to tie the game at 31. Stirton had 10 points and four rebounds.

Stirton and Hannah Love were selected to the all-tournament team.

Love scored on a give-and-go from Stirton in the second half to put NIC up 54-50.

Love had 10 points and seven rebounds.

We didn’t execute at the end, we didn’t run our stuff and their defense took us out,” Carlson said. “We just got scattered.”

Buskey finished the night off with nine points.

It was a good learning experience for us to play that hard and to be that close to winning,” Carlson said. “That’s part of the learning complex.”

The previous day, NIC defeated the third-seeded Salt Lake Community College Bruins 57-33 at Rolly Williams Court to advance to the showdown with CSI.

Stirton, who was named conference Most Valuable Player on Thursday night, had a pull-up 3-pointer to extend NIC’s lead 13-2. Stirton had seven of NIC’s first 13 points. She had 11 points, five assists and two steals for the game.

“The girls brought a lot of energy, a lot of focus out there,” Carlson said. “They were very united as a team.”

NIC was leading 20-2 to begin the first half. It included a 16-0 run.

Love finished with 10 points and Katie Buskey had eight points.

Kabri Emerson sank a 3-pointer in the second half to add to NIC’s 50-29 lead. Emerson had nine points and six rebounds.

Our defense set the tone and our defensive rebounding was awesome today,” Carlson said.

The Cardinals are 28-4 with three of their four losses coming against CSI.

They can still clinch an at-large berth to the NJCAA National Tournament in Salina, Kan., starting March 18.

CSI (21-11) will advance to the national tournament.

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