Cardinal men fall to first-place Salt Lake

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah — North Idaho College fell behind by 16 points at the half in an 87-73 loss to first-place Salt Lake Community College in Scenic West Athletic Conference play Saturday at Bruin Arena.

Salt Lake (23-3, 8-2 SWAC) hit eight 3-pointers in the first half in opening up a 51-33 halftime lead.

Dante Sawyer scored a game-high 21 points for NIC (20-7, 6-3), which is now in third place in the conference, behind Salt and second-place College of Southern Idaho (20-7, 7-2), which won at fourth-place Snow (20-6, 5-5) 85-71 on Saturday.

Vaughn Weems added 13 points for the Cardinals.

Zaon Collins hit 5 of 9 3s and scored 19 points, and Jordan Battle hit 4 of 8 3s and added 16 points for Salt Lake.

NIC plays at Colorado Northwestern on Thursday.

NORTH IDAHO

Austin Johnson 3-8 2-3 9, Cobi Campbell 4-7 1-2 10, Kyle Karstetter 2-6 0-0 5, Dante Sawyer 8-16 5-7 21, Jalen Skalskiy 3-7 3-3 9, Terin Johnson 0-0 2-4 2, Vaughn Weems 5-9 2-3 13, D'Andre Clermont 0-0 0-0 0, Tayshawn Colvin 0-1 2-2 2, Bryce Henry 0-0 0-0 0, Tanner Tollestrup 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 25-54 19-26 73.

SALT LAKE

Michael Folarin 3-3 2-3 8, Bryce Zephir 6-12 0-1 13, Zaon Collins 7-11 0-0 19, Preston Squire 1-3 0-0 3, Jordan Battle 5-12 2-2 16, CJ Luster 4-11 4-4 13, Luke Smellie 1-3 0-0 2, Coen Collier 1-4 0-0 2, Kevin Winsor 0-0 0-0 0, Mason Bendinger 4-7 0-0 9, Mikhail Abdul-Hamid 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 33-69 8-10 87.

Halftime — SLCC 51-33. 3-point goals — NIC 4-15 (A. Johnson 1-4, Campbell 1-2, Karstetter 1-4, Sawyer 0-2, Skalskiy 0-2, Weems 1-1), SLCC 13-34 (Zephir 1-3, Collins 5-9, Squire 1-3, Battle 4-8, Luster 1-4, Smellie 0-2, Collier 0-1, Bendinger 1-3, Abdul-Hamid 0-1). Rebounds — NIC 31 (Sawyer, Skalskiy 6), SLCC 39 (Collier 12). Assists — NIC 6 (Campbell, Skalskiy 2), SLCC 16 Battle 6). Fouled out — none. Total fouls — NIC 11, SLCC 19.

To view the full article, please visit the CDA Press at this link.