The Fighting Cardinals were back in action Saturday evening at the Christopher Turkey Tournament against the Wayne City Indians. This time, NCOE was playing for the third place championship against a non-conference rival. The only issue that was of concern for NCOE was that they were playing a team who had received three days rest while the Fighting Cardinals were playing on back to back nights.
Although NCOE had played on consecutive nights it did not appear to be causing them any issues at all for they quickly jumped out to the 17-7 lead following one quarter of play. This 10-point lead did not last long as fatigue started to play a part on the Fighting Cardinals witnessing several shots falling just short. Wayne City being well-rested used this to their advantage as they continued to push the ball up the court quickly. This fast paced game found the Indians cutting into the NCOE advantage. In fact the 22-15 run that Wayne City went on in the second quarter of play found the Fighting Cardinals only claiming a 32-29 lead as they headed to the locker room at halftime.
Third quarter action kicked off with NCOE nursing a three point lead but less than three minutes into the quarter, the Fighting Cardinals would relinquish their lead for the first time in the ballgame. They would find their deficit grow to seven but a three pointer by Houston Money as the quarter was winding down would narrow the gap to just four (48-44) as they headed into the final 8:00 of play.
This fourth and final quarter started shaky for the Fighting Cardinals but some pesky defense by Ty Money caused a spark resulting in some conversions off of Wayne City turnovers enabling NCOE to regain the lead at 53-51 with 5:27 left to play. This lead was short-lived as the Indians would work themselves back into it to take the lead back and stretch it to five before the Fighting Cardinal would once again come roaring back to pull within one point. This would be as close as it would ever get as Wayne City, behind their Freshman phenom, Taj McKinney, would hang on to defeat NCOE 68- 59. Another factor that enabled the Indians to seal the victory was converting 17 of 20 free throw shots while the Fighting Cardinals were only placed at the charity stripe nine time (six of those successful).
Leading the scoring attack for the Fighting Cardinals (1-2) was C.J. Richardson with 15 points. Brandon Skaggs followed closely with 14 points. Skaggs also represented NCOE well as he was selected to the tourney’s All Tournament team. Others scoring for NCOE were Jack Riggs added nine, Colton O’Neal six, Trey Simmons five, Jaden Barton three, Houston Money three, and Ty Money two.
