Cards knock off No. 1 Snow

North Idaho 79 

Snow 69 

COEUR d'ALENE — This is the time of year when you want to be at your best, play well and get some big-time wins. 

Thursday was that night for the Cardinals. 

Ne'quan Brown, a sophomore from Tacoma, Wash., had 27 points and eight rebounds for the Cardinals, who upset the Badgers, the top-ranked team in this week's NJCAA poll, at Rolly Williams Court in a Scenic West Athletic Conference game. 

Ajayi Simmons, a sophomore from Seattle, Wash., had 18 points and four rebounds and freshman Austin Ouko, of Switzerland, had 11 points and five rebounds for NIC, which led 37-34 at halftime. 

"We've been preaching the buy-in with our guys all year," NIC coach Corey Symons said. "Our three-headed monster of Ne'quan, Ajayi and Austin, they all played great tonight. Our bigs really did a good job tonight, and everything finally clicked." 

NIC (16-13, 6-8 SWAC) concludes the regular season at home against Utah State-Eastern (21-8, 8-6) on Saturday at 3 p.m. Snow (27-2, 12-2) travels to Southern Idaho (27-2, 13-1), with the winner earning the right to host the Region 18 Championships starting next Friday. The teams have split the previous two matchups this season. 

"This is when we want to play our best," Symons said. "We've just got to keep it going next week." 

Brock McClure scored 17 points for Snow, which shot 25 of 70 from the field.

SNOW 

Blake Bahr 1-1 0-0 2, McCaden Adams 4-13 3-4 13, Sean Felts 4-13 2-2 10, Brock McClure 6-17 3-4 17, Aaron Bliss 1-4 0-0 2, Max Toombs 1-3 0-0 3, Sam Sivulich 3-10 3-4 9, Kyle Lemke 3-6 3-4 9, James Rust 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 25-70 14-18 69. 

NORTH IDAHO 

Ne'quan Brown 11-22 1-2 27, Nyale Robinson 1-6 7-8 9, Ajayi Simmons 6-12 3-3 18, Austin Ouko 4-11 1-1 11, Aly Toure 0-1 2-2 2, Vander Brown 0-0 1-1 1, Shamar Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Cason Miller 0-1 0-0 0, Sawyr Hansen 0-1 0-0 0, Gage Ontiveros 2-3 3-4 7, Justus Haseley 0-0 2-4 2, Jacori Ervin 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 25-58 20-25 79. 

Halftime — NIC 37-34. 3-point goals — Snow 5-26 (Adams 2-7, Felts 0-2, McClure 2-8, Bliss 0-1, Toombs 1-3, Sivulich 0-4, Rust 0-1), NIC 9-26 (N. Brown 4-8, Robinson 0-4, Simmons 3-7, Ouko 2-5, Miller 0-1, Hansen 0-1). Rebounds — Snow 38 (Felts 10), NIC 31 (N. Brown 8). Assists — Snow 8 (Bahr 5), NIC 9 (Robinson 3). Team fouls — Snow 21, NIC 17. Fouled out — Toombs. 

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