Coach Evan Wyllie and his Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Fighting Cardinal basketball team played host to the Wayne City Indians Tuesday evening. Although these two teams had already met earlier in the season at the Christopher Turkey Tournament, the Fighting Cardinals were more than ready to face the challenge once again.
Unlike their first encounter with the Indians, where NCOE found themselves facing an 11 point deficit following one quarter of play, this time around, NCOE put on a much better defensive showing, along with matching their opponent on the offensive end to find the score knotted at 14-all following one quarter of play. Second quarter action was much the same as the first but as the buzzer would sound for intermission, Wayne City would manage to top NCOE by one point to claim the 25-24 halftime lead.
Following intermission, the Fighting Cardinals would find their level of intensity on the defensive and offensive ends dropping just a little, which allowed the Indians to outscore the Fighting Cardinals 22-9 to stretch their one point lead into a 14-point lead. The fourth and final quarter did find NCOE battling once again, but when the 8:00 stanza came to a close, the Fighting Cardinals would be on the short end of a 60-44 final score.
Brandon Skaggs was the leading scorer for the Fighting Cardinals (1-8) with 18 points. Rounding out the remainder of the scoring was Jack Riggs six points, Trey Simmons five, Jeb Baumgart four, Evan Healy three, CJ Richardson three, Colton O’Neal three, and Houston Money two.
The Junior Varsity contest witnessed NCOE getting off to a slow start on both ends of the court as they fell behind 8-4 following the first quarter of play. Second quarter action appeared to be nearly identical to that of the first, with the Fighting Cardinals once again finding their opponent getting the best of them 7-6, to leave NCOE facing a five point deficit heading into the locker room at halftime. Second half action did start to improve for NCOE as they were able to outscore their opponent 23-22, but the earlier damage was too much to overcome as the Fighting Cardinals fell by the final score of 37-33.
Following the contest, Coach Jim Tucker stated, “Our defensive intensity was not there the first half and on the offensive end, we were out of sync and turned the ball over too much. The second half started slow as well, but we were able to cut a 15 point deficit down to only three points,” Tucker added. “In the end Wayne City made 7/8 free throws to keep us from being able to tie or take the lead.”
Scoring for the Jayvee squad was topped by Houston Money with 13 points. Others scoring for the Fighting Cardinals were Eli Brown and Jacob Richerson with six points apiece and Gavin Dauby, Ty Lane, Joe Melton, and Devon Robinson with two points each.
The Freshmen contest found the Fighting Cardinals playing very hard at both ends of the court, but with injuries and illness depleting quite a few of the players, the roster was not at its usual number and NCOE was unable to keep up with Wayne City as they fell by the final score of 30-10.
Leading the Freshmen was Gabe Largent with three points, followed by Jace Johnson with three points, and Devon Robinson with two points.
NCOE will be back in action Thursday, December 28, when they take on the #1 seed Eldorado Eagles in the 53rd Annual Eldorado Holiday Tournament.
