As the Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Fighting Cardinal basketball team headed to Eldorado Saturday evening to take on the Eldorado Eagles, the game played just nineteen days prior against the Eagles was still fresh on their minds. However, this time, the Fighting Cardinals were determined to not go down without giving their best effort.
When the ball was tipped, Eldorado used their size and aggressiveness to jump out to an early 7-0 lead before NCOE could find an answer on the offensive end. This offensive struggle would continue throughout the remainder of the first quarter, and the Fighting Cardinals would fall behind 17-9 early in the game. NCOE started to find their rhythm in the second quarter as they were able to put 15 points on the board, but the only problem was, they were not able to shut down their opponent. Therefore, the Fighting Cardinals would now find themselves trailing by 13 at the halftime break.
Things changed in the third quarter for NCOE. They stepped their game up on the offensive end as well as the defensive end, and went on to outscore the Eagles 21-17. This run topped off by a last second layup by Matt Long to cut the Eagle lead to nine appeared to be all the momentum NCOE would need heading into the fourth and final quarter to make a final surge at Eldorado. However, as Long finished the layup, he tried to avoid a collision by jumping over a cheerleader and ran out of room causing him to slam into the chair backs and landing motionless on the floor. Following a delay, Long was carted off the court and taken to a local hospital for tests. When play resumed, NCOE picked up where they left off and cut into the lead even more, but all the energy the Fighting Cardinals once had seemed to fade when the Eagles knocked down some key shots and went on the hand NCOE the 66-54 loss.
Leading scorer for NCOE was Dakota Bond with 18 points. Nolan Sutton followed with 11 points on the night. Others scoring were Matt Long eight, Chase Sutton seven, Brantley Neal four, and three a piece from Jake DeLap and Marcus Niehaus.
“We definitely struggled from an offensive stand point. We also missed free throws,” stated Coach Evan Wyllie. Wyllie also commented, “However, I felt our full court pressure gave them some problems which kept us in the game. We made a run in the third quarter, but couldn’t quite get over the hump. I was proud of our effort overall.”
The junior varsity contest started out balanced, with both teams scoring and defending well. Although NCOE fell behind by five at the end of the first quarter, it appeared this was not a deficit they would not be able to overcome. However, the second quarter found the Fighting Cardinals unable to score as easily as they did in the first quarter, as they were only able to put three points on the board compared to 14 Eagle points. Now, NCOE would have their work cut out for them, trailing by 16 as the first half came to a close.
Second half action would find NCOE once again getting things going on the offensive end when they put up 15 third quarter points. Unfortunately for the Fighting Cardinals, due to the Eagle height and physicality, they once again cooled off in the fourth quarter and could only manage seven more points, thus falling to the Eagles by the final score of 66-34.
Trenton Verble’s 10 points topped the jayvee Fighting Cardinals followed by seven from Colton O’Neal, five from Ben Taylor and Brandon Skaggs, four from Jeb Baumgart, and three from Evan Healy.
