01-27-15
BY JACK BULLOCK
HARRISBURG - After spending the better part of the first quarter shooting themselves in the foot offensively (seven turnovers) the Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Fighting Cardinals figured this was just a superficial wound.

Mainly because on the other end of the floor they put up a barricade which kept the Galatia Bearcats from getting much going on offense.

By the time NCOE got going in the middle part of the opening frame, they rolled past the Bearcats.

Coach Bryon Graven's club completed this battle unscathed and advanced to the semifinal round of the Greater Egyptian Conference Tournament with a 68-34 win on Tuesday night.

As the second seeded club, the Cards will now face rival Hardin County on Friday night in the first semifinal.

This will be the third game between the two foes this season with NCOE winning the previous two games handily.

Nine of the Fighting Cardinals got in on the act with points on this night, although it took some time to get things straightened out.

Despite 15-turnovers, including those seven in the first quarter, NCOE jumped out to a big lead and pushed it to over 30-points to force a continuous clock in the fourth quarter.

“I thought tonight we played really good defense and the kids played hard,” said Coach Graven. “We gave up some offensive rebounds tonight because we didn't do a good job checking people off of the boards. But then again they (Galatia) missed a lot of shots so there were chances for them.”

The top guns for the Cardinals were Dakota Bond and Chase Sutton, each scoring a dozen.

Both took different paths to 12-points.

Sutton scored five 2-field goals and tossed in a couple of free throws to reach 12.

Bond, on the other hand, hit a pair of 3-pointers and two 2-pointers for 12.

Two other NCOE sharp shooters; Matt Long and Blake Karnes added 10-points each.

For Galatia the night wasn't good to the 'Cats as they fell behind early and never recovered.

Only sophomore Devyn Verbach hit for double-figures (11-points) for Galatia and head coach Kendall Hankins.

Sophomore Luke Lawrence added eight to the total.

The bad news in the first half for NCOE was that they committed 11-turnovers, including seven in the first half.

The good news is that they missed just one shot in the first quarter once they stopped the turnover issues, they got on a run.

The Fighting Cardinals trailed 2-1 in the first minute before going on a 10-0 run to get the lead back for good.

Karnes, a 6-foot senior leader, scored twice on fast-breaks and Bond netted a shot from the right baseline that forced a Galatia early timeout.

Two free throws by junior Marcus Niehaus moved the score to 11-2.

Lawrence hit a 3-point shot for the Bearcats moments later but NCOE closed the quarter with the next seven points.

Sutton, a 6-foot junior guard, converted a three-point play while being fouled by Galatia sophomore Ethan Patterson.

Another shot by Long, that wasn't a long shot, and a drive to the basket by Sell on a pass from Bond, which shouldn't be confused with a Bond Sell, made it 18-5 at the end of one quarter of play.

NCOE hit its first six shots of the quarter for a double-digit lead.

Galatia, on the other hand, was just 2-of-13 from the floor and it didn't get any better in the second quarter for the Bearcats.

The Cardinals delivered the finishing touches on the rout that was over by intermission.

A 20-2 plunge into the scoring well propelled the Cardinals into the semifinals.

Bond nailed two 3-pointers in the stretch and Sutton got another three-point play.

Long converted two more fast-break chances for NCOE and another 3-pointer by Karnes pushed the advantage to 42-11 with 1:36 left until the break.

Another run (8-0) with all four of the baskets on drives to the goal opened the second half.

Karnes, Sell, Sutton and Bond scored in that order all on moves at the basket.

Six-foot-four junior Jacob Delap added four points in the third quarter for the Cardinals and his tip-in off of a Long miss made it 58-21 in the final moments of the third quarter.

Long added four more points in the fourth quarter and reserve junior Nolan Sutton tossed in the final Cardinal points in the final moments.

Norris City-Omaha-Enfield, after those first few moments, recovered for a top-notch effort.

Coach Graven got a great overall shooting performance from his club as they hit 26-of-43 from the floor (60.4 percent) while hitting 4-of-5 from the 3-point line.

They held Galatia to just 14-of-47 shooting (4-of-13 from long range) and they ruled the boards by the tune of 32-18.

“We made our big runs on the defensive end of the floor and I was proud of our effort tonight,” added Coach Graven.

NCOE is now 11-9 on the season while Galatia is 2-12.

Sophomore Tyler Winters, a 5-foot-8 guard, hit for 25-points in the win for HC.

He hit a trio of 3-point shots in the game and added 4-of-6 free throw shooting in the victory over Pope County.

Senior guard BJ Austin became the school's all-time leading scorer as he scored 10-points.

The senior guard needed seven to break the career record.

The previous mark of 1,266-points was held by Jamie Fowler.

Hardin County improved to 16-4 overall on the season with the win, as they jumped out to a 21-9 first quarter lead and never looked back as they advanced to semifinals where they will face NCOE.

A 27-8 third quarter advantage pushed Hardin County to a 57-32 spread at the end of the third quarter.

Six-foot-two sophomore Austin Seavers added 12-points for the Cougars and freshmanb Trace Barnard and Cameron Shaw came in and nailed three 3-pointers each for nine points apiece as nine different Cougars scored for Coach Rodney Lane.

Pope County saw its mark slip to 4-15 overall.

Coach Jim Simmons' Pirates were led by senior Doug Ferguson with 11-points.

Two of the Hardin County losses are to the Cardinals this season, 58-37 at NCOE on December 19 and 62-44 in the consolation championship game of the Eldorado Holiday Tournament back on December 29.

Pope County and Galatia will square off in a consolation semifinal on Thursday night.