Cardinals rebound, romp past Wenatchee Valley

COEUR d'ALENE — With some time to work on itself, North Idaho College has been stressing a commitment to defense as the games get tougher starting next week.

On Tuesday, it was all effort.

Vaughn Weems, a freshman from Federal Way, Wash., had 25 points, five rebounds and four steals for the Cardinals off the bench in a 108-86 win over Wenatchee Valley at Rolly Williams Court, the first of two straight matchups against the former Northwest Athletic Conference rivals.

"Vaughn is just so solid," NIC coach Corey Symons said. "He plays with a big motor and does a great job of attacking the glass on both ends of the floor. He probably had 10 of his points off offensive rebounds and getting to the basket."

NIC (11-4) opens conference play in the NJCAA's Scenic West Athletic Conference — the first time since 2016 — next Wednesday against Snow College. The Badgers are currently ranked fifth in the latest NJCAA poll.

"We've really been focusing on the defensive end and getting rebounds," said Symons, whose team outrebounded Wenatchee Valley 47-23. "We don't have a problem putting points on the board, but know with our games coming up in league that we're going to have to rebound and play with a lot of effort."

NIC had 19 offensive rebounds that led to 32 second-chance points. 

"The guys really played their tails off tonight," Symons said. 

Terin Johnson, a sophomore from Grand Prairie, Texas, had 21 points and 11 rebounds for NIC.

Henry Hughes was 8-of-12 from the 3-point line and finished with 34 points for Wenatchee Valley (4-9).

The teams meet again tonight at 7.

WENATCHEE VALLEY
Michael Afrakoff 3-7 1-1 9, Donovan Renz 1-4 0-0 2, Eamon Monahan 4-10 0-0 8, Diego Gutierrez 3-11 0-0 9, Henry Hughes 11-15 4-4 34, Ryan Brown 2-3 0-0 5, Andrew Lyford 2-4 0-0 6, Daniel Miller 1-1 0-0 3, Luke Chaffin 0-0 0-0 0, Dane Sykes 1-2 0-0 2, Danilo Vukovic 3-10 2-2 8. Totals 31-67 7-7 86.

NORTH IDAHO

Torin Johnson 10-15 1-4 21, Cobi Campbell 2-4 1-2 5, Kyle Karstetter 2-9 2-2 7, Dante Sawyer 5-10 2-2 12, Jalen Skalskiy 7-12 0-2 17, Vaughn Weems 9-10 6-8 25, D'Andre Clermont 2-6 0-0 4, Tayshawn Colvin 4-6 0-1 8, Bryce Henry 3-3 1-2 7, Tanner Tollestrup 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 45-78 13-23 108.

Halftime — NIC 57-36. 3-point goals — WVC 17-33 (Afrakoff 2-5, Renz 0-1, Monahan 0-3, Gutierrez 3-6, Hughes 8-12, Brown 1-1, Lyford 2-4, Miller 1-1), NIC 5-18 (Campbell 0-2, Karstetter 1-5, Sawyer 0-1, Skalskiy 3-5, Weems 1-1, Clermont 0-2, Tollestrup 0-2). Rebounds — WVC 23 (Gutierrez, Sykes 5), NIC 47 (Johnson 11). Assists — WVC 17 (Gutierrez 12), NIC 13 (Weems 3). Team fouls — WVC 22, NIC 11. Fouled out — Sykes, Hughes.

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