Women’s basketball wins season opener

The first North Idaho College regular season basketball game played on the new wood floors of Rolly Williams Court belonged to the Lady Cardinals as they beat the North Idaho All-Stars 75-55 Nov. 2.

The All-Stars consisted mostly of former college basketball players, including three former NIC players.

Sophomore point guard Georgia Stirton, who verbally committed to Gonzaga, led the way offensively for the Lady Cardinals scoring 22 points to go along with three assists and three steals. Former Lake City High standout Jansen Butler scored 12 points, all of them coming on three-pointers.

NIC head coach Chris Carlson said Butler trained hard at Ultimate Athlete in Coeur d’Alene this summer and that the results are showing.

“She’s just stronger in her movements and I think it’s helped her shooting,” Carlson said.

Butler’s sister, Sydney, scored six points for the All-Stars.

NIC also attacked the basket and drew fouls. The Lady Cardinals shot 24 of 30 from the free-throw line.

Carlson was concerned about his team committing 24 fouls. He said he expects more fouls to be called this season.

“I think nationally they said the scoring averages are down and they think there’s too much contact and hand checking and stuff like that that’s going on,” Carlson said. “So we’re going to have to adjust.”

NIC shot 30 percent from the field compared to the All-Stars’ 44 percent. But, NIC also attempted 30 more shots than the All-Stars.

“We put up a lot of shots,” Stirton said. “I think at the start we were just getting the first-game nerves out. But as the game went on, we started to be more comfortable.”

Richelle Fenenbock, who played at BYU-Hawaii, scored 23 points for the All-Stars.

NIC beat Northeastern Junior College 65-54 Thursday in Casper, Wyo. The 14th-ranked Lady Cardinals (2-0) play Casper College tonight and Utah State University-Eastern Saturday in Casper.