KIRKLAND – Fifth-ranked College of Idaho held Northwest to 33 percent shooting and withstood the Eagles 55-53 Friday.
 
"I was proud of our effort," said NU Head Coach Jeff Drinkwine. "College of Idaho is a great team with a lot of people back from its final-four run last season. We just have to clean some things up. We'll learn from this."
 
Northwest led by as many as 10 points on two occasions in the first half before taking a 30-28 lead into the intermission.
 
Derek Wadsworth gave CI its first lead with 12:32 left in the game, and the Yotes would push that lead out to six points.
 
Northwest briefly got the lead back on a pair of Dejwan Walker free throws with 2:27 remaining, but Nate Bruneel converted a three-point play for a 55-53 CI lead with 2:04 left.
 
Christian Hakilimali tied the game for the Eagles at the free-throw line with 15 seconds remaining.
 
CI missed the front end of a bonus free throw but corralled the offensive rebound and got right back to the line, where Talon Pinckney made two free throws for a 57-55 lead with eight seconds to play.
 
Both teams added an additional free throw and set up a contested three-quarter court heave by the Eagles, which was off the mark.
 
Pinckney led the Yotes with 15 points, and Bruneel added 10.
 
Hakilimali had 17 to lead the Eagles, followed by Ryan Ricks with 14 and Walker with 10. Hussayn Ford had 14 rebounds to go with eight points.
 
Northwest dipped to 10-5 overall and 5-1 in the Cascade Collegiate Conference. College of Idaho improved to 14-3 and 7-0 in the league.
 
The Eagles return to action Saturday at 7:30 p.m. against Eastern Oregon in NU's Kristi Brodin Pavilion.