Cards win big on Sophomore Night; clinch East region title

Alphonso Anderson poured in 30 points to lead NIC (25-2,14-0) past Spokane (18-9,9-5) 96-67 Wednesday night at Christianson Gymnasium, en route to clinching their second East Region title in the last three years.

Anderson was hot early, scoring 22 of his points in the first half. Fellow sophomore RayQuan Evans dropped in 23 points and 11 rebounds in his final home game. In his only game off the bench this season, point guard Nate Pryor added 14 points for NIC.

Head coach Corey Symons elected to start all five of his sophomores in their last home game, and the starters, I.e. Evans, Anderson, Jarod Greene, Iain McLaughlin, and Drew Sheridan answered the call. Less than two minutes in, NIC jumped out to an 11-0 lead and forced a Spokane timeout. They would never look back.

From L to R, sophomores Iain McLaughlin, Alphonso Anderson, RayQuan Evans, and Jarod Greene celebrate clinching the East Region title

By beating their rival Spokane, the Cards completed the season sweep of the Sasquatch, and won their sixteenth straight game. With two games left in the regular season, the number one team in the NWAC is this close to heading into the tournament undefeated in conference play, and red-hot as they look to defend their championship from last season.

The Cardinals have already clinched, but with Symons’ ‘stay-on-the-pedal’ approach, they will head to Yakima Valley on Saturday with the same mindset, and look to keep the winning the ways going. After that, they will wrap up the season on the road in Columbia Basin next Wednesday.

The games can be found on the NIC athletics’ Youtube page.