Coach Jimmy Goebel and his NCOE Junior Cardinal basketball team received the number three seed in the Little Greater Egyptian Conference Tournament, but when they traveled to Hardin County Tuesday evening, Jan. 19, to play the Carrier Mills Wildcats in semi-final action, they were hoping to prove they deserved better than this ranking. Already with one victory under their belts in this conference tournament against the Hardin County Cougars, NCOE was very well aware of what a battle they were up against taking on the second seeded Wildcats.
When the game got underway, the Jr. Cards struggled on the offensive end as they were only able to muster three points (courtesy of a CJ Richardson three pointer) the whole quarter compared to 18 Wildcat points. Now, trailing by 15, NCOE knew they had to get their offense going as well as their defense to shut down a potent Carrier Mills team. This is exactly what the Jr. Cards did by only allowing 12 additional Wildcat points while posting 13 of their own to cut into the Carrier Mills lead heading into the locker room at halftime.
NCOE was hoping to pick up where they left off as the third quarter started, but unfortunately, Carrier Mills had other ideas. In fact, the Wildcats had five players hit the scoring column in this third quarter as they erupted for 24 third quarter points compared to only nine by the Jr. Cards. Facing a 29 point deficit with only one quarter remaining was going to be a tall task for the Jr.Cards but one they were up for. This fourth and final quarter would find NCOE outscoring their opponent by seven, but this was just not enough as the Jr. Cards fell by the final score of 58-36.
Jack Riggs topped all NCOE players with 17 points in the contest. Others scoring were CJ Richardson eight, Ty Lane three, Spencer Taylor three, Nathaniel Wilson three, and Trey Simmons two. NCOE (10-11) will now play Crab Orchard for third place
