01-25-16
BY JACK BULLOCK
HARRISBURG - For most eight-team tournaments played in a bracket format, the 1 vs. 8 seeded game usually produces a lopsided result.

That was again the case in the first round of the Greater Egyptian Conference tournament held at SIC in Harrisburg.

The top-seeded Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Fighting Cardinals were never on upset alert, sprinting out to an early lead and coasting home to a 69-43 win over eighth-seeded Pope County.

Coach Evan Wyllie used everyone in uniform on Monday night as NCOE improved to 13-7 on the season with the victory to move into the tournament semifinals to be played on Friday.

Six-foot senior guard Dakota Bond got the Cards going early and he finished his outstanding evening with 27-points.

Senior guard Chase Sutton added 12-points in the rout while Jake Delap, a 6-foot-4 senior, tossed in 10.

In fact nine NCOE players got the scorebook wet with ink in the decisive win which was over early.

“It all started with Dakota Bond, he had it going tonight. He knocked down some 3's and he was being really aggressive and attacked the rim. We really rebounded well on the offensive glass early. I thought our overall pressure was really good,” said Coach Wyllie.
“We kind of set the tone early and kind of cruised from there.”

For Pope County (5-15) and head coach Jim Simmons, just one player reached double-figures as 6-foot-1 sophomore forward Nick Walker netted 10-points.

Six-foot-six junior Jacob Floyd added seven points and 10-rebounds for Pope County.

Neither total did anything to diminish the real problem that the Pirates had on this Monday night.

NCOE forced, by defensive pressure, a whopping 34-turnovers by Pope County.

Most of which turned into points.

Eight of this mistakes occurred in the first quarter as Norris City-Omaha-Enfield sprinted clear in the opening frame.

Bond got the ball rolling in the thumping, netting a trio of 3-pointers in the frame.

His bomb from the right wing was followed up by a fast break lay in on a pass from Delap for a 9-2 lead and the first Pope County timeout at 5:04 left.

Bond added his second trey from the same spot on the right side and he again scored on a drive through the Pirates defense.

When Sutton converted yet another fast break off of a Pirate miscue, the lead had grown to 17-4.

Bond wasn't finished as he converted 2-of-3 free throws after being fouled attempting a 3-pointer from the right corner.

He then closed the quarter with his third trifecta, from near his favorite first quarter spot, making it 22-8 at the horn.

Whatever chances that Pope County had to get back into the game in the second quarter ended early as NCOE went on a 9-2 dash with Sutton scoring twice.

Three consecutive turnovers in a :28 time-frame resulted in six-straight points and a 31-10 lead.

The next run, this time an 8-2 move, featured three scores from Delap.

He took a pair of lob passes in the lane for points and then converted a fast break chance with a pass coming from Bond for an easy lay in and a 40-14 advantage with 3:34 before halftime.

The Pirates mistakes weren't just from handling the ball on this night.

They couldn't cash in many of their opportunities from the field or the foul line.

Six-foot-one senior Cody Harris managed to get to the foul line nine times in the first half.

However he was able to convert only 2-of-9 as he finished with just six-points.

The two he made closed the half at 40-16 NCOE.

“I thought we ran our break extremely well. When we stole the ball we were able to finish. We have worked on running the break and it showed, we were able to get some easy baskets,” said Coach Wyllie.

Sutton scored six points and Nolan Sutton, who scored seven-points in the contest, tossed in a 3-pointer at the 2:18 mark to push the score to 53-25.

Another basket by Bond closed the stanza at 56-30 heading into the fourth.

The largest lead of the game occurred during in the final minutes before Coach Wyllie call off the dogs.

Another steal and fast break by Bond, who picked off an errant pass from Pope County and sprinted the length of the floor for a lay in, a basket by junior Cooper Wells and 3-of-4 free throws by Bond and senior Marcus Niehaus made it 63-34 with 4:54 to go.

The NCOE kids were probably arm weary by the end of the game from all of the shot attempts.

The Fighting Cardinals were 27-of-65 from the field (41.5 percent) which included 5-of-19 from long range.

Several of those missed shots happened late in the game by reserves after that damage had been done.

Pope County ended up out rebounding NCOE, 29-28 but that stat did little to diminish the dominance of the Cardinals on this night.

When they weren't turning the ball over, Pope County shot the ball pretty well early on but ended up 18-of-41 from the floor.

But the key number was the 34-turnovers for the Pirates as they fell into the consolation bracket where they will face Carrier Mills on Thursday.

The Wildcats lost to Crab Orchard in the first game on Monday night.

The Trojans and Fighting Cardinals will hook up on Friday night in a rematch of a regular season game won by Crab Orchard 75-74 in overtime on December 1 at Crab.

“I think we match up well (with Crab Orchard) and we are going to try to keep pushing the ball up the floor against them,” said Coach Wyllie.

Coach Jon Brown's troops overcame an even first half by outscoring Carrier Mills, 27-12 in the final 16-minutes.

Lane Hutson, a 5-foot-9 senior guard, netted 16-points.

Hutson nailed four 3-pointers in the game, including two in the fourth quarter.

Junior forward Hunter Franklin added 14-points while classmate Caleb Vaughn tossed home 12.

Cameron Stephens, a 5-foot-8 sophomore, added nine-points in the win.

The Trojans hit eleven 3-point shots in the game as they improved to 15-5 on the season.

Carrier Mills (6-12) was led by Justice Hill, a 6-foot-2 junior, with 21-points.

He scored 19 of the points in the first half as the Wildcats were tied with Crab Orchard at 28-all.

Carrier Mills (40) – Childers 0 1 0-0 3, Fann 2 0 0-0 4, Austin 0 0 1-2 1, Fuller 1 0 0-0 2, Hill 9 1 0-0 21, Schwartz 1 1 0-0 5, Shaw 0 0 0-0 0, Walker 2 0 0-0 4, Lewis 0 0 0-0 0, Paris 0 0 0-0 0, Lollis 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-15, 3FG-3, FT-1-2, PF-8.
Crab Orchard (55) – Hutson 2 4 0-0 16, Stephens 0 3 0-0 9, Ferrell 1 0 0-0 2, Vaughn 0 4 0-0 12, Franklin 6 0 2-2 14, Beasley 0 0 0-0 0, Schell 0 0 0-0 0, Vinson 0 0 0-0 0, Holmes 0 0 0-0 0, Perry 0 0 0-0 0, Arnold 0 0 0-0 0, Whitehead 1 0 0-0 2..
2FG-10, 3FG-11, FT-2-2, PF-8.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.