Coach Evan Wyllie and his NCOE Fighting Cardinal Basketball team ventured to Fairfield Saturday evening to take on the Mules in a non-conference match up. For the second time in less than one week, the Fighting Cardinals would be going up against a larger Class 2A team. Action started out just like it usually does for NCOE…fast paced. Both teams were very aggressive but as the first quarter closed, the Mules would hold a seven point advantage. The Fighting Cardinals would rally back in the second stanza to put 17 more points on the board compared to only 15 from their rival to narrow the gap and only trail by five heading into the locker room at halftime (39-34).
Second half action was almost a mirror image of the first with Fairfield extending their lead to 12 with a 23-point third quarter while NCOE could only connect for 16 points. Now trailing by double digits, the Fighting Cardinals were aware they had to make one final run to pull off the victory. This final eight minutes witnessed the Fighting Cardinals storming back to add 28 more points to their total, but the Mules were able to add 24 points of their own to withstand this final surge and hand NCOE the 86-78 loss. The Fighting Cardinals now stand at 1-6 overall.
Matt Long scored 25 points to lead all scorers in the game. Others scoring for NCOE were Cooper Wells 16, Jeb Baumgart 13, Brandon Skaggs 11, Trenton Verble seven, Evan Healy three, and Ben Taylor three.
The junior varsity game started out all Fairfield (a phenomenal Mule Jayvee team that had knocked off Crab Orchard Varsity earlier in the day at the Conrad Allen Tournament) as NCOE was unable to muster a single basket in the first quarter. Although the Fighting Cardinals did step up their defense and hold Fairfield to just 10 points in the second quarter they still found themselves trailing by 32-point differential at the half. Second half action was much better for the Fighting Cardinals as they were able to limit their opponent to only 17 total points, but NCOE would still suffer from shooting woes on the offensive end and fell by the final score of 52-12. NCOE drops to 1-3 on the season.
Ty Lane would lead the Fighting Cardinals with five points followed by three points from Trey Simmons, and two points each for Gavin Dauby and Houston Money. The Freshmen squad were also in action at Fairfield as they were still riding high from their first victory of the season at Carmi Tuesday evening. However, this momentum would quickly shift in favor of the Mules as they held NCOE to only three points in the first quarter to claim the early 10-3 lead. The Fighting Cardinals would get their offense going in the second quarter to fight back, but the Mules would once again outscore NCOE to extend their halftime lead to 12 (24-12).
Coming out of the locker room, the Fighting Cardinals continued to struggle on the offensive end as they were only able to record four points compared to 13 by the Mules. NCOE would find the fourth and final quarter friendlier to them offensively but for the fourth consecutive quarter they would be outscored by Fairfield and fall 48-23.
Spencer Taylor would lead NCOE (1-1) with 13 points. Others scoring were Prestyn Karns five, Brendan Frost three, and Ty Lane two.
