A rough welcome back for Cardinals...NIC men fall to Snow

COEUR d'ALENE — On any given night in the Scenic West Athletic Conference, anyone can beat anyone.

On Wednesday, it just wasn't North Idaho College's night.

Snow's Coleman Ford hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with seven seconds remaining, sending the 10th-ranked Badgers of Ephraim, Utah, past the Cardinals 77-75 in NIC's first SWAC games since the 2015-16 season.

NIC took a 75-74 lead on an and-1 from sophomore Jalen Skalskiy late in the second half before Ford's shot gave them the win.

"We just couldn't get stops on defense late in the game," NIC coach Corey Symons said. "Snow's a good team, but we gave ourselves a chance late, but didn't execute. I need to do a better job of getting them prepared because we just weren't ready down the stretch."

NIC (12-5) rejoined the conference after playing in the Northwest Athletic Conference.

"I told the guys in the locker room, welcome back, we've got 48 hours to regroup and play another really good team," Symons said. "We've got no time to mope and feel sorrow. We've got to be ready to go on Saturday."

Snow (16-1) travels to Southern Idaho, which beat No. 2 Salt Lake 70-65 on Wednesday in Twin Falls.

Sophomore Dante Sawyer scored 21 points and freshman Vaughn Weems had 18 points and six rebounds for NIC.

Isaac Finlinson and Ford scored 13 each for Snow.

SNOW 

Mark Brown 0-4 1-2 1, Colin Christensen 2-4 2-2 6, Dylan Jones 4-11 1-3 12, Max Triplett 5-11 2-6 12, Noah Lemke 2-3 0-0 4, Donaven Davis 1-3 0-0 2, Gaige Savage 4-10 0-0 12, Isaac Finlinson 4-8 3-3 13, Coleman Ford 4-6 2-2 13, Isaac Garrett0-2 2-2 2. Totals 27-62 13-20 77.

NORTH IDAHO

Austin Johnson 3-8 0-0 7, Cobi Campbell 3-9 4-4 10, Kyle Karstetter 0-3 2-4 2, Dante Sawyer 6-12 7-8 21, Jalen Skalskiy 3-8 4-8 10, Terin Johnson 3-7 1-2 7, Vaughn Weems 7-9 3-4 18, Bryce Henry 0-0 0-0 2. Totals 25-57 20-30 75.

Halftime — Snow 40-36. 3-point goals — Snow 10-24 (Jones 3-8, Triplett 0-1, Davis 0-2, Savage 2-6, Finlinson 2-2, Ford 3-3, Garrett 0-3), NIC 5-26 (A. Johnson 5-26, Campbell 0-5, Karstetter 0-4, Sawyer 2-6, Skalskiy 1-6, Weems 1-1). Rebounds — Snow 37 (Triplett 13), NIC 1 (T. Johnson, Weems 6). Assists — Snow 7 (Triplett 2), NIC 8 (A. Johnson 3). Team fouls — Snow 20, NIC 17. Fouled out — none.

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