Following an opening round upset over the seventh-seeded Fairfield Mules in the 51st Annual Eldorado Holiday Tournament, Coach Evan Wyllie and his Fighting Cardinal basketball team were looking to bounce back from a second round loss to a very talented second-seeded Webster County, Kentucky team, and land themselves into a trophy game at 6:00 in the evening. However, in order to keep their dreams alive and accomplish this goal, NCOE had one major obstacle to overcome. This would be pulling an even bigger upset than their first round game against the number six seeded and host team, Eldorado Eagles. [Read more...]

The NCOE Fighting Cardinal basketball team traveled to Galatia Tuesday evening to take on the Bearcats. With Galatia already defeating Crab Orchard along with other Greater Egyptian Conference teams, fans knew this matchup had the makings of great game. [Read more...]

 

 

 

For the second time in as many weeks, the NCOE Junior High basketball team was set to take on the Fairfield Colts.  This time, however, it was not in a tournament on a neutral site, but rather a home game for a talented Fairfield team.  Therefore, NCOE knew they had their work cut out for them.

First quarter action started out slow for the Jr. Cards on the offensive end as they were only able to register four points compared to their opponents 12. This eight point deficit was one that NCOE knew would be hard to overcome, but with a gallant second quarter effort, the gap narrowed when the Jr. Cards outscored the Colts 10-8 to only trail by six at the halftime break.

Following halftime, NCOE came out strong once again, but Fairfield matched this strength with their own to extend their lead to nine, heading into the final quarter of play.  This fourth and final quarter found the Jr. Cards wearing down and the Colts taking advantage of this, along with some sharp shooting of their own to outscore NCOE 14-6 and hand the Jr.Cards the hard fought 46-29 loss.

Jack Riggs led the scoring column for NCOE with 22 points (18 coming from three point land) followed by three from Ty Money, and two each from Trey Simmons and Devon Lawless.  Ty Money dished out three assists to top all Jr. Cardinal players. Others with an assist were Ty Lane two, Trey Simmons two, Devon Lawless two, and Spencer Taylor one.

Devon Lawless collected eight rebounds to lead the team, followed by four from Joe Melton, three from CJ Richardson, two from Ty Money and Brendan Frost, and one from Jack Riggs.  The steals category was topped by Ty Money with four.  Others collecting a steal were Ty Lane, CJ Richardson, Bryce Jolley, Trey Simmons, and Devon Lawless.

The jayvee contest was much more balanced than the varsity with neither team outscoring the other by more than four points in any of the four quarters. However, it would be the Jr.Cardinal team coming up short in each of the four quarters to fall by the final score of 33-24.

Scoring was very balanced for NCOE in this contest, but Ty Money topped all players with six points, followed by four from CJ Richardson.  Nathaniel Wilson and Megan Healy each added three points along with two points a piece from Peyton Edwards, Jacob Richerson, Lucas Browning, and Aryon Jolley.  Jacob Richerson dished out three assists to lead the team followed by one each from Megan Healy and CJ Richardson.  

CJ Richardson collected four rebounds for the Jr.Cards followed by three from Peyton Edwards and Lucas Browning, and one from Ty Money, Nathaniel Wilson, Jacob Richerson, and Colter Rister.  Jacob Richerson and Ty Money topped all players with three steals a piece.  Others collecting steals were Peyton Edwards two, and one each from Joe Melton, Nathaniel Wilson, and Lucas Browning.

The Junior Cardinals will travel to Thompsonville on Monday, December 14, then welcome Wayne City to town on Thursday, December 17, before laying idle over the Christmas break.

Varsity

              1         2        3        4        Total

NCOE     4        10       9        6           29

F-field    12       8       12      14          46

JV

NCOE     7         4        6        7            24

F-field    8         6        8       11           33

Tuesday evening marked the annual rivalry amongst two White County basketball teams when the Carmi White County Bulldogs traveled to Norris City to take on the Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Fighting Cardinals.  Knowing that the last time these two teams met NCOE got the better of the Bulldogs (at the Eldorado Holiday Tournament) fans anticipated a heated atmosphere.

First half action was one in which it appeared the Fighting Cardinals could do no wrong as they wreaked havoc on the Bulldogs with their zone defense (only the Orangemen of Syracuse could run a zone better).  NCOE capitalized on the Carmi confusion to force several turnovers and knock down shots jumping out to the early 11 point lead, 28-17, at the halftime break.

NCOE, hoping to continue to add to their lead and cause even more chaos for the CWC offense, found the start of the second half going any which way but what they had planned.  The Fighting Cardinals coughed up some early turnovers to start the third quarter, and realized the Bulldogs had made some offensive adjustments to counteract the zone.  All of this combined, led to a 24-4 Carmi run and found NCOE now trailing by nine with only eight minutes remaining in the contest.  Both teams held their own in this final frame with small spurts, but when time ran out, it would be the Bulldogs redeeming themselves from their previous meeting and handing the Fighting Cardinals the 61-49 defeat.

Chase Sutton was the top scorer for NCOE (5-3) with 16 points.  Matt Long pitched in with 12 points of his own while Jake Delap picked up nine points, Cooper Wells seven, and Dakota Bond five.

The junior varsity contest saw the Bulldogs coming out strong right from the start to jump out to the early 18-7 first quarter lead.  Momentum slowed down just a little bit in the second quarter, but CWC still managed to outscore NCOE 11-5 to claim the 29-12 halftime lead.

NCOE responded nicely following halftime and started to pick up intensity on the offensive end.  This energy led them to 12 third quarter points, but unfortunately the Fighting Cardinals still found themselves trailing as they headed into the final frame.  Fourth quarter action was still better than that of the first two of the game, but once again their 10 points was just not enough to stage the comeback, and NCOE fell by the final score of 60-34 to drop to 0-3 on the season.

Trenton Verble had the hot hand for NCOE as he posted 13 points in the game.  Others scoring were Evan Healy eight, Jeb Baumgart four, and three a piece for Ben Taylor, Justin Brock, and Colton O'Neal.

Next up for NCOE will be the Galatia Bearcats at Galatia on Tuesday, December 15 followed by a trip to Hardin County on Friday, December 18 to take on last years IHSA Class 1A Regional Champion Cougars.

Varsity

              1          2         3          4        Total

CWC      10        7        24        20           61

NCOE    16        12         4        17           49

JV

CWC      18        11        15         16           60

NCOE      7         5          12        10           34

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Monday night brought with it the first game of the season for Coach Shea Smith’s Norris City-Omaha-Enfield High School Freshmen team. This contest would find the Fighting Cardinals playing host to the Hamilton County Foxes. [Read more...]

The Norris City-Omaha-Enfield High School basketball team headed to Crab Orchard Tuesday evening to play their first Greater Egyptian Conference game of the season. It was expected that this contest, just like so many in the previous years, would go right down to the wire. This prediction, knowing Crab Orchard returned four of their five starters from the previous year, was right on the money. [Read more...]

Wednesday evening found Coach Jimmy Goebel’s NCOE Junior High basketball traveling back to Wayne City to take on the Cisne Lions in their second game of the Wayne City Tournament. After both teams had dropped their first game of the tournament, this would be a must win situation for each in order to play one more tourney game. [Read more...]