Erik Healy, Joel Hortin, Preston Long, and Cord Tucker finally said goodbye to their NCOE Junior High basketball career Saturday morning, April 13, when they played their final contest in a Junior Cardinal uniform. All four players were selected for yet another All-Star game with this latest selection being the Tri-State All Star Game that took place at Wabash Valley Junior College in Mt. Carmel, Illinois.
This contest was quite different than that of the previous all-star game that the players took part in at Rend Lake College, for Tri-State meant that not only players from Illinois took part, but players from Indiana as well. However, as these four young men displayed all season long for NCOE, the competition never mattered, for they were always up for the challenge, and each and every one of these players could rise up and take matters into their own hands if their fellow teammates were having an off night. This day was no different, as the four Junior Cardinals managed to score 22 of their team’s first 25 points in the game, not to mention 63 of the teams total 80 points in the contest. Preston Long finished the day with 27 points, followed by Joel Hortin with 18, Cord Tucker 12, and Erik Healy six.
