A good test for NWAC champion Cardinals

When the North Idaho College men’s basketball team opens defense of its Northwest Athletic Conference championship on Saturday night, it might have the feel of last year’s title game all over again.

For good reason.

NIC opens against Peninsula, the team it beat in the NWAC title game in March in Everett, Wash. Tipoff at Rolly Williams Court is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

“It’s kind of a fun deal to do,” said NIC coach Corey Symons, who begins his fifth season as head coach, 15th at the school overall. “It will be a good test right out of the gate. It would be kind of cool if the NWAC would make that a tradition to have the two teams that met in the championship game open the following year.”

NIC returns starters RayQuan Evans — a 6-foot-5 guard who verballed to Utah State earlier this month — and 6-8 forward Jarod Greene. Evans was named NWAC Tournament MVP. Aushanti Potts-Woods, a sophomore last year who scored 23 points in the second half of last year’s NWAC Championship game, transferred to Division II Alaska-Fairbanks. Alphonso Anderson, who has also verballed to Utah State, joins the NIC roster after playing as a freshman at Montana during the 2017-18 season.

Eli Sheppard, a 6-5 guard from Kentwood, is the lone returner for Peninsula, of Port Angeles, Wash. Donald Rollman, a longtime assistant at Peninsula, was promoted to head coach when Mitch Freeman accepted the head coaching job at NAIA Corban University in Salem, Ore.

“They’re pretty similar to us,” Symons said. “They’ve had some changes, but (Rollman) has been there the past four or five years.”

NIC will hold a ring ceremony to honor the 2017-18 NWAC champions 15 minutes before tipoff of Saturday’s game.

“They’re pretty nice rings,” Symons said. “I’m a little more worried about coaching the game, but it should be a nice night.”

Wrestling: NIC, ranked 20th in the latest NJCAA poll, made its home opener Friday, hosting fourth-ranked Clackamas Community College at Christianson Gym.

NIC swept duals against Iowa Western and sixth-ranked Iowa Central in Fort Dodge, Iowa, last Thursday. NIC will host the Cardinals Duals on Saturday starting at noon against Umpqua, then face Highline at 2 p.m. before wrapping up the weekend with the annual Spokane Open on Sunday at the Spokane Convention Center.

Women’s basketball: Sophomore Zosha Krupa, a 5-10 guard from Sitka, Alaska, is the lone returner from the 2017-18 Cardinal team.

NIC opened the season at Mesa Community College Friday.