‘It’s just amazing:’ Freshman guard leads College of Idaho to sweep of Northwest Nazarene

The College of Idaho and Northwest Nazarene men’s basketball programs share the longest college rivalry in the state, fighting for Canyon County bragging rights since 1933.

A player who’s brand-new to the spirited matchups this season — and who doesn’t have local ties the way so many of the Yotes and Nighthawks do — made the difference Tuesday night when they met for the second time in the past three weeks.

Freshman guard Samaje Morgan, a native of Eugene, Oregon, scored 17 points off the bench to lift the Yotes — NAIA’s No. 4-ranked team — to a 60-47 win over NNU at the J.A. Albertsons Activity Center in Caldwell.

“We just had to be patient,” Morgan said. “We have a lot of scorers on the team and it can be anyone’s night. When the ball gets kicked to you, you shoot it.”

Round two of the 2022 United Heritage Mayors’ Cup ended with College of Idaho (8-1) sweeping the Nighthawks (3-6) for the first time since 2014-15. The two met on Nov. 22 at the Johnson Sports Center in Nampa, with the Yotes winning 70-67 in overtime.

Tuesday night’s game was just as tight for the first 30 minutes, before Morgan led a surge to give C of I a double-digit lead.

“I’m really proud to see our guys check off challenges that we’ve set forth for ourselves,” College of Idaho coach Colby Blaine said. “We’re showing a lot of toughness mentally.”

Northwest Nazarene and College of Idaho scored a combined eight baskets in the first 13 minutes of what started as a defensive struggle. It took a basket-and-one from Yotes guard Charles Elzie for someone to hit double figures — with about 6 minutes left in the first half, it was 12-7.

Elzie added another basket-and-one before the Nighthawks’ Tru Allen weaved through the paint to notch a layup just before the halftime buzzer, cutting the Yotes’ lead to 26-20.

NNU shot 7-of-25 in the first half. C of I was better at 12-of-26, but that included a dismal 1-of-11 from behind the 3-point line.

“NNU did a nice job of switching their defense, so it really disrupted our offensive flow,” Blaine said. “We didn’t quite know what to do. Defensively, for us, we just want to run our zone, we don’t want to give up open layups and we want to contest the 3-point line. The defensive battle was great.”

The Yotes used a rotation of eight players to generate more offense in the second half.

Morgan, the brother to C of I assistant coach and former standout player Emanuel Morgan, delivered. He scored an easy layup off a steal and deep pass from Drew Wyman to push C of I’s lead to 11 with 10 minutes to go. Two minutes later, an offensive rebound from Jake O’Neil set up Morgan’s corner three to push the lead to 12.

O’Neil had 10 points for the Yotes, with Elzie adding nine points and four steals.

Gabriel Murphy led the Nighthawks with 13 points and nine rebounds.

The Yotes rode their home crowd to push their all-time record to 125-87 against NNU. They also extended their overall home winning streak to 26 games.

“I knew when I came on my visit that the (home crowd) here was amazing,” Morgan said. “That’s one of the main reasons why I came here, because the crowd wants us to win and we want to win. It’s just amazing, and when we can get a win on top of that, it’s big.”