01-26-10
BY JACK BULLOCK
HARRISBURG - On Tuesday night in the first round of the Greater Egyptian Conference Tournament – Norris City-Omaha-Enfield wanted to get off to a good start.

It took a bit longer than Cardinals’ head coach Doug Miller expected but the result was the same.

NCOE broke loose from the feisty Cougars with a 13-0 sprint to finish the second quarter and rolled to a 53-36 win in the opening contest of the two games played at Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg.

Getting 18-points from senior Kyle Brown and 17-markers from Jordan Weiss – Miller’s club improved to 12-5 overall and advanced to the championship round semifinals.

“The game got a little wild there for a time but give our senior guards credit because they got everyone to calm down. They showed leadership as we ran some clock and got everything under control,” said Coach Miller. “Short, Weiss and Cody Etienne are our seniors and leaders and tonight they played well.”

Hardin County saw its mark fall to 7-10 overall and head coach Brett Oxford will have his team back in action on Thursday night when they will take on Pope County in one of the consolation semi’s.

The Pirates fell to Crab Orchard 79-49 in the other quarterfinal.

Ryan Davis led the Cougars with 13-points while sophomore teammate Kyle Holloman added 10.

After Hardin County put together back-to-back scores by Dylan Davis and Holloman to cut the Cardinals’ lead down to 20-16 with 3:27 left before the half – NCOE exploded for 13-unanswered points.

In fact Weiss scored the first nine of those points to get the separation that his squad needed.

A pair of 3-point bombs sandwiched around a conventional three-point play started by a nice assist by Seth Short gave NCOE some breathing room at 29-16.

A fast break score by Kody Sutton and another bucket by Short pushed the lead to 33-16 at the half.

The 13-0 run turned into 17-points in a row for the Cardinals to begin the third quarter and Hardin County never recovered.

Brown scored seven of his 18-points in the third quarter.

NCOE had dragged the Cougars out of its 2-3-zone defense in the second half and after spreading the floor and running some time off of the clock – Brown found himself wide-open in the left corner for a 20-footer that found the mark for a 40-22 lead.

“If you let teams like them (Hardin County) hang around then they start ‘drop-kicking’ three’s in the fourth quarter and have a chance to win,” Miller explained. “We didn’t want that to be an issue.”

Ryan Davis scored six of his points in the third quarter in trying to keep the game within reach for Hardin County.

NCOE again showed patience on offense in holding the ball the final 43 seconds of the frame with Weiss driving down the middle of the lane for a runner that bounced around the rim, off the backboard and in for a 44-25 lead after three.

Hardin County would get no closer than 17 the remainder of the game.

Defensively NCOE was very strong as the Cards forced the Cougars into a poor shooting night.

Coach Oxford’s crew was just 14-of-43 overall (32 percent) and a paltry 2-of-16 (12.5 percent) from behind the 3-point line.

“We missed way too many lay-ups in the first half and we had so many easy shots,” said Coach Oxford. “I mean easy, easy shots. I would say at least eight or ten shots that we had good looks and that is 18-to-20 points we could have had. You can’t win games if you miss that many shots like that. Norris City played well. They spread us out and we had to play man-to-man on them. It just wasn’t our night.””

NCOE shot the ball much better – connecting on 21-of-38 overall and 5-of-11 from downtown.

After Brown and Weiss – Coach Miller’s team got seven points from Sutton in the victory.

NCOE held a slight 21-20 rebounding edge while committing 10 turnovers.

“We are trying to get better every game and our goal is to be playing six weeks from now and not be done in five,” added Miller – referring to winning a regional and still be playing in a sectional. “That is our theme right now. Nothing else really matters but the game we are playing and then down the road in the postseason.”

Hardin County (36) – R. Davis 5 0 3-3 13, D. Davis 1 0 0-2 2, Paskon 3 0 0-0 6, German 1 0 0-0 2, Holloman 2 1 3-6 10, Parkinson 0 1 0-0 3, McClenahan 0 0 0-0 0, Hayes 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-12, 3FG-2, FT-6-11, PF-13.
Norris City-Omaha-Enfield (53) – Weiss 5 2 1-3 17, Etienne 1 0 0-0 2, Short 1 0 1-2 3, Brown 5 2 2-2 18, Kerns 2 0 0-0 4, Gwaltney 0 0 0-0 0, Sutton 2 1 0-0 7, Stecyk 0 0 2-2 2, Marsh 0 0 0-0 0. 2FG-16, 3FG-5, FT-6-9, PF-17.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – Paskon - Hardin County; Kerns - NCOE.

CRAB ORCHARD 79, POPE COUNTY 49
The Trojans – the tournaments’ number two seed – took complete control in the second half by outscoring the Pirates 38-21 in the win.

Coach Jon Brown’s team was led by a career-best 29-points from sophomore Ben Kissing as Crab Orchard improved to 18-2 overall.

Adam Perry finished with 21-points for the Trojans – who led just 20-16 in the first quarter and only 41-28 at the half.

Popecounty (3-12) was paced by 25-points from senior Kyle Benard while junior Stephen Simmons notched 10.

Crab Orchard and NCOE will hook up on Friday night.

ope County (49) – Benard 6 2 7-7 25, Butler 0 0 0-0 0, Simmons 5 0 0-1 10, Rison 0 0 0-0 0, Dunlap 2 0 0-0 4, Cockrum 2 0 0-0 4, Sandefer 2 0 2-2 6.
2FG-17, 3FG-2, FT-9-10, PF-22.
Crab Orchard (79) – Johnson 2 1 2-2 9, Wece 0 0 1-4 1, Kissing 11 0 7-9 29, Killen 1 0 0-0 2, Perry 6 0 9-12 21, Boester 3 0 0-1 6, Emery 2 0 1-2 5, Hutson 0 2 0-0 6, Dorries 0 0 0-1 0, McGuire 0 0 0-2 0.
2FG-25, 3FG-3, FT-20-33, PF-9.
Fouled Out – Butler, Rison - Pope County.
Technical Fouls – None