Following a buzzer beater victory against the fifth seed Eldorado Eagles Thursday night, the Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Fighting Cardinal basketball team headed back to the 54th Annual Eldorado Holiday Tournament Friday evening to take on the Harrisburg Bulldogs in quarterfinal action.
First quarter action did not start out as favorable for NCOE on the offensive end as they had hoped for. They were only able to muster five points in the first 8:00 of play. This did not prove beneficial to the Fighting Cardinals because the Harrisburg offense was able to score 11 points leaving NCOE trailing by six points. The second quarter found the Fighting Cardinal offense starting to get in a groove as they were able to top the Bulldogs 14-12 to narrow their deficit to just four points, 23-19, when halftime arrived.
Following intermission, both teams hit a wall on the offensive end as neither were able to get much of anything going. However, the Fighting Cardinals were able to cut into the Bulldog lead just a little more when they did top Harrisburg 7-6, to only trail by three points heading into the fourth and final quarter of play. This final stanza would witness NCOE finally erasing the Harrisburg lead when CJ Richardson would knock down a three pointer to tie the contest at 29 all. Harrisburg would manage to reclaim the lead but the Fighting Cardinals would finally claim their first lead of the game when Richardson connected on another three pointer to boost NCOE up 32-31. This contest would be back and forth for a little while but the Bulldogs would be able to make their free throws late in the game to hold the Fighting Cardinals at bay and hand NCOE the 51-45 loss.
CJ Richardson led the way with 13 points followed by Brandon Skaggs with 10 points. Others scoring for the Fighting Cardinals (4-7) were Jack Riggs nine points, Trey Simmons four points, Colton O’Neal four points, Ty Money three points, and Eli Brown two points.
