Monday evening found Coach Wyllie and his NCOE Fighting Cardinal basketball team in a situation that they had not seen happen in a few years, and that was to be on the championship side of the bracket in the 51st annual Eldorado Holiday Tournament. NCOE knew being on this side of the bracket would also mean the competition would be even tougher. Tough was understatement for what the Webster County, Kentucky team would throw at the Fighting Cardinals.
When first quarter action got underway, there was no doubt the pace of the game was going to be upbeat, but when the buzzer sounded, hopes remained high as the contest was knotted at ten all. It was not until midway through the second quarter that the intense defensive pressure that Webster County was putting on the Fighting Cardinals started to take a toll. Numerous turnovers and missed opportunities caused NCOE to fall behind by 14 at the halftime break.
Coming out of the locker room, NCOE made some adjustments and knocked down a few shots, but would still find themselves on the short end of a 43-24 score as the third quarter came to a close. The fourth and final quarter was once again a struggle offensively for the Fighting Cardinals as they were only able to put five points on the board and fell by the final score of 54-29 to an extremely aggressive Webster County team.
Following the game, Coach Wyllie stated, "Their defensive pressure took us out of our rhythm. We were unable to get into any of our sets, and we turned the ball over 25 times." Wyllie also said, "I give them credit for their defensive intensity taking us out of what we wanted to do." NCOE will now have to bounce back and get ready to play the host team, Eldorado Eagles, in a must win game at 10 a.m. game Tuesday in order to stay alive and play in the 5th place game at 6 p.m.
Dakota Bond led the way for NCOE with 10 points in the contest. Others scoring were Chase Sutton with seven points, Matt Long six points, and two points apiece from Cooper Wells and Marcus Niehaus.
1 2 3 4 Total
W.C. 10 18 15 11 54
NCOE 10 4 10 5 29
