Thursday evening would find the #3 seeded NCOE Junior Cardinals taking on the #6 seeded Hardin County Cougars in first round action of the Little Greater Egyptian Conference Tournament. NCOE, being the higher seed, earned the right to host their first round game; however, the rest of the conference tournament will take place at Hardin County.
Both teams came out of the locker room ready to play and earn the right to advance to the semifinal round of the tournament. This back and forth action would find the score knotted at eight all when the first quarter came to a close. NCOE would gain a little ground on Hardin County in the second quarter when they outscored their opponent 14-10 to claim the 22-18 halftime lead. Most of this momentum by the Jr. Cards was led by Ty Money as he claimed 13 of NCOE’s 22 points thus far.
Following halftime, NCOE slowed down just a bit on the offensive end which would find Hardin County cutting into their four point lead. Now only leading by three (31-28), the Junior Cardinals were aware that they had to put on a superb fourth quarter performance to stay alive in the winner’s bracket of the tournament. Led by intense defense, NCOE did just this, and went on to outscore the Cougars 19-6 in the final stanza to cruise to the 50-34 victory.
Ty Money and Jack Riggs each scored 16 points to pace the Jr. Cardinals. Others scoring were Trey Simmons 11, Spencer Taylor three, CJ Richardson three, and Devon Lawless one. CJ Richardson dished out four assists to lead this category followed by three each from Jack Riggs, Ty Money, and Trey Simmons along with two from Spencer Taylor.
Devon Lawless brought down 12 boards to top all Jr. Cardinals followed by six from Jack Riggs, four from CJ Richardson, three apiece from Joe Melton and Ty Money, and one each from Trey Simmons, Spencer Taylor, and Lucas Thomas. Ty Money led the team with four steals while Trey Simmons and Jack Riggs collected three, along with two each from Devon Lawless and CJ Richardson.
The Junior Cardinals now stand at 10-10 on the season and will advance to the semi-final round of the LGEC tournament. Their next game will be at 7:15 p.m. Tuesday, January 19, at Hardin County, and they will be playing the winner of the Carrier Mills/ Thompsonville game.
