NCOE welcomed the Hamilton County Foxes to town Saturday evening in what most believed would be a relaxed game for the Fighting Cardinals. However, the Foxes came to town ready to prove everyone wrong, and show that they should not be taken lightly.
First quarter action began with both teams trading baskets and neither team gathering enough momentum to pull out to a commanding lead.Th is was so much the case that, as the buzzer sounded, the score would be knotted at 10 all. The second quarter started out all Foxes when they were knocking down three pointers, but when the Hamilton County lead reached the 10 point mark, NCOE started to kick it into gear. In fact, the Fighting Cardinals stepped their defensive pressure up so much, they created numerous Hamilton County turnovers. Not only did NCOE create turnovers, they capitalized on the offensive end with several easy buckets. This would lead to a 14 point advantage for the Fighting Cardinals as they headed to the locker room for the halftime break.
Once second half action began, Hamilton County would once again find themselves victim of more defensive pressure by the Fighting Cardinals. The Foxes tried, but could never find a solution to this pressure enabling NCOE to cruise to the 80-52 victory.
“Another great overall win for us. We had plenty of guys who contributed to this one,” stated Coach Evan Wyllie. Wyllie also added, “We started out slow, but we stuck with our full court pressure. I feel like we finally got going offensively and Hamilton County just got tired, and we were able to cruise from there.”
Three Fighting Cardinals reached double digits in this contest. Dakota Bond and Chase Sutton led the way for NCOE with 19 points each. Jake Delap followed with 17, but Delap had something no one else could claim and that was a monstrous two-handed slam to seal the deal. Others scoring for NCOE were Cooper Wells six, Nolan Sutton six, Matt Long five, Brantley Neal four, Ben Taylor two, Marcus Niehaus one, and Jeb Baumgart one.
With this victory NCOE moves to 10-6 overall on the season.They will resume GEC action on Tuesday, January 12, when they host the Pope County Pirates. They will wrap up the week on Saturday, January 16, as they venture to Eldorado for a 6:15 tip off seeking revenge on an earlier loss.
The jayvee contest started out very balanced with both teams registering 11 first quarter points. Second quarter action was finding the momentum swaying the Fighting Cardinals way as they jumped out to a five point lead. However, the Foxes responded quickly to this, and went on a run of their own to outscore NCOE and claim the 37-22 lead as they headed to the locker room at halftime.
Second half action would find Hamilton County adding to their lead in the third quarter, but the fourth quarter would be all NCOE as they would outscore the Foxes 11-4. Unfortunately, this was just too little too late and NCOE would fall by the final score of 56-43.
Ben Taylor was the top scorer for NCOE with 10 points. Others scoring were Trenton Verble nine, Colton O’Neal eight, Evan Healy six, Brandon Skaggs three, Justin Brock three, Will Travelstead two, and Jeb Baumgart two.
