The 5th/6th Grade Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Junior Cardinal basketball teams played host to the Carmi-White County Bullpups Saturday morning. Still searching for their first victory of the season, the task was even taller this morning as they would be up against the Class L Bullpups.
In the sixth grade contest both teams got off to a somewhat slow start but as the first quarter came to a close the Bullpups would own the 8-3 advantage. Second quarter action was much more balanced but once again C-WC would manage to top the Jr. Cards but this time only by one point. This would leave the Jr. Cards trailing at halftime but only by six points.
The third quarter would find the NCOE defense letting down just a bit as they allowed their opponent a game high 12 third quarter points while they were only able to record two points of their own. Now facing a 16-point deficit, NCOE had to come alive on the offensive end if they were to stage a comeback. Unfortunately for the Jr. Cards, they were only able to add six more points to their total as they fell by the final score of 32-16.
Nolan Prather was the leading scorer for NCOE with seven points. Others scoring for the Junior Cardinals were Cameron Pollard four point, Caleb Prather two points, Spencer Shipp two points, and Tate Riggs one point.
The fifth grade contest started out very one sided as the Bullpups stormed out to a 21-4 first quarter advantage. The Jr. Cardinal defense did tighten up a bit in the second quarter but a much more physical Bullpup team was once again able to outscore the Jr. Cards 15-2 to leave NCOE facing a 30-point halftime deficit.
Second half action was all Bullpups once again as they used their size, strength, and quickness to go on a 37-4 run in the remaining two quarters of play to hand NCOE the 64- 10 loss.
Leading the way for the 5th grade squad was Bryer Sauls with eight points while Riley Pearce added two points.
