Show Win In I one Chris Bergquist Contributing Writer The Bruins may have lost on Saturday however exciting intense hard fought and unbelievable are just a few words that can describe Friday nights night's 79 78 win by the Mens Men's Basketball team over the North Idaho College Cardinals This was the first game since their stunning loss to Snow College on January 31 and was decided in m the final 03 second The first half was extremely fast paced with up-and-down up action throughout The defense by bythe bythe bythe the Bruins was impressive to say the least as they grabbed 13 first half rebounds and blocked three shots The offense on the other hand took a afew afew afew few minutes to get rolling but once it did it came in bunches with the Bruins finding themselves up by byas byas byas as much as 12 points Led by freshman DJ Wright and his 15 first half points the Bruins rolled into halftime shooting 50 percent from the field and percent from the stripe leading the Cardinals 44 The second half started off with a bang as sophomore guard Dathan Lyles made an incredible fake and drove to the basket for a lay lay up up that would have made LeBron James smile From there the game went back and forth for the next 17 minutes s as the lead was changed hands 13 times DJ Wright joined by Dathan Lyles and Nate Bendall rea really ly stepped it up in the second half offensively to keep the Bruins Bruin's in the thick of things down the stretch To say the final seconds of the game were scary is an understatement The Bruins Bruin's were clinging on to a 79 78 lead coming off their final timeout and NIC had possession of the ball with 73 seconds left The ball was thrown inbounds and the Cardinals had three good looks at the basket but missed With what looked to be 0 seconds left on m the clock and NIC having possession the refs called a foul on Bruins Guard Dathan Lyles After they talked it over the refs decided to put 03 seconds back on the clock and send NIC to the line with a chance to win it Since the foul wasn't called aUed in the acl act of shooting it w was S a one ones shot situation miss anthe anc an the gam With ani tl th 1 1 A pressure o onta nd tho cro crow j yelling on top op of their lungs NIC's Taylor Stevens shot and missed that free throw giving the victory The Bruins showed just how important they felt this victory over a fellow nationally ranked SW SWAG G team was when they ran off the court in celebration i j The Bruins Bruin's finished the game shooting percent from the field 50 percent from the 3 point poin line and percent front the throw free-throw line They were also able to hold Nl NIa NIG to just percent fr fro from ri the field NIC didn't help themselves from the stripe collectively shooting a Tim TilT like Duncan-like percent The Bruins' Bruins top performers were DJ Wright who led ledall ledall ledall all scorers with 24 9 rebounds and 3 blocked shots Dathan Lyles who finished with 13 points 6 rebounds 3 assists and 3 steals and Nate Bendall who finished strong with 10 points and 2 rebounds Q I- I I J A r. r 0 f aU ai r- r 1 w t-t t t c V Vp p T JIh A 1 r. J hf I ff f. c J J r- r rt i. i t 41 A Photo by J 1ST A David MV Hubert u |