Coughing up seven first quarter turnovers, including five in their first five possessions, things didn't look good for the hosts as they spotted visiting Carrier Mills an 11-2 lead.

Nevertheless it didn't take long for NCOE to get its mistakes under control.

The Cardinals shot “light's out” on the night and forced the Wildcats into turnovers and poor shooting overall.

Using a big third quarter start, and one final charge in the final minutes, the hosts took home a hard-fought 65-62 win.

Freshman guard Chase Sutton topped the Cards with 20-points while senior teammate Dylan Martin chipped in 17-points as NCOE was a “scorching” 24-of-37 from the floor.

That stat allowed the Fighting Cardinals to survive 18-turnovers, including seven in the first and fourth quarters each.

Coach Bryon Graven saw his team hit 4-of-6 from behind the 3-point arc and hit 10-of-14 free throws.

“There (Carrier Mills) overall record doesn't show it, but they are playing really good basketball right now. After Christmas I think they were 9-2 coming in with just losses to Gallatin County,” said Coach Graven. “We didn't come out ready to go tonight and those turnovers hurt us.”

Despite the mistakes and the early misfortune, NCOE improved to 15-9 overall with the win.

The Wildcats didn't shoot the ball well on the night but managed to stay close with over half of their made baskets coming from behind the 3-point arc.

Five-foot-nine senior guard Josh Bailey nailed seven 3-pointers in the game as the team hit 11-of-21 from down town.

However head coach Mark Motsinger's gunslinger's were just 10-of-32 from inside the circle.

A steal and fast break lay in by Carrier Mills' Slayden Figg and back-to-back bombs from 20-feet Dalton Summers and Bailey forced an NCOE timeout with under two minutes gone in the first quarter.

With the Cardinals not getting off to a good starter, Carrier Mills took advantage.

Cameron Taborn, a veteran senior forward, caught the Cards napping on a free throw attempt by teammate Darren Betz.

Taborn tipped the ball in for a 15-4 lead with 4:37 left.

“We shot the ball well early in the game but I think that got us shooting the ball way too fast. We made a couple of quick shots and the kids thought that we were going to make them all,” said Coach Motsinger. “After we hit those 3-pointers early, now everyone is a 3-point shooter.”

In what could be categorized as a back-and-forth contest, NCOE scored seven straight points with Seth Halfacre and Martin each scoring on drives to the basket.

A three-point play by Sutton cut the NCOE deficit to 15-11.

Following another Taborn score moments later off of another Cards' turnover, Norris City-Omaha-Enfield wouldn't commit another miscue the rest of the half as they mounted their first comeback of the game.

Martin and Sutton each scored to end the first quarter at 20-15 Carrier Mills.

Even though Coach Graven's club was turning the ball over, they were still hitting a high percentage of shots (7-of-9 in the first quarter alone) and were attacking the Carrier Mills defense, getting the ball inside.

“Whether or not it is a man-to-man or a zone, we want to get to the rim. We want that high percentage game,” added Coach Graven. “We want them (opponents) to shoot lower percentage shots from the outside. We just have to take better care of the basketball.”

Trailing 25-15 early in the second quarter, NCOE put together another run and closed the gap to 31-29 at intermission.

Sutton and junior Cole Tucker each nailed shots from behind the arc and when Sutton made a steal and scored on a fast break lay in with :07 left, NCOE was down just two after falling behind by double-digits twice in the opening half.

They made up most of the deficit with Taborn on the bench after picking up his third foul with 5:02 left.

“Without him (Taborn) on the floor, he is 80 percent of our rebounding and basically our only post presence,” said Coach Motsinger. “We are a different team when he isn't out there.”

The Fighting Cardinals turned that two-point disadvantage at the break into a nine-point spread by the end of the third quarter.

A conventional three-point play with just seconds gone in the third quarter gave NCOE back the advantage.

The Cardinals finished the quarter, and seemingly had the game in hand, with a 9-0 run highlighted by five points from Martin, including yet another 3-pointer from the left wing.

Carrier Mills shooting issues continued into the second half with the Wildcats hitting just 3-of-15 shots in the third quarter alone.

Part of the run by NCOE was a pair of free throws by Sutton after Bailey was assessed a technical foul after having a personal foul called on him.

Those charities gave the Fighting Cardinals their biggest lead at 49-38 with 1:40 left.

“Our lack of size is why we zone and the first time we played them they didn't hit any outside shots. Tonight they hit some shots so we had to extend our defense some, which left too many gaps for them to drive in,” added Coach Motsinger. “The Martin kid does a good job driving to the basket.”

Carrier Mills, in a game of scoring runs, took their final shot at the Cardinals and it nearly resulted in a improbable win.

The Wildcats scored 12-straight points to briefly regain the lead.

Again by forcing NCOE into mistakes, Carrier Mills got another long range missile from Bailey and a pair of transition baskets from Summers and Figg.

Figg took a long pass from Taborn for a score and on the next possession nailed a pair of free throws for a 52-51 Carrier Mills lead.

The Cardinals broke the final tie and eventually won the contest by scoring six points in succession.

Sutton scored four of the points on a pair of free throws and then a fast break score on a nice pass from Martin.

Tucker added yet another field goal on a drive in the middle of the lane for a 63-57 advantage with just over a minute left.

Carrier Mills got one final 3-pointer from Bailey with :12.5 remaining.

However the Wildcats were forced to foul and 5-foot-11 sophomore Blake Karnes calmly drained two important foul shots to ice the game.

A tip in on a missed shot by Taborn closed the scoring as the buzzer sounded.

Carrier Mills can point to two factors for their defeat as they saw their record drop to 13-13 overall, and 8-3 in the GEC.

Hitting just 21-of-53 shots overall (39 percent) isn't too bad but when you consider that NCOE hit for 64.8 percent on the night, 39 wasn't going to be good enough.

Adding 12-turnovers didn't help matters either, especially the four in the final quarter which helped stop their final rally.

NCOE plays host to Thompsonville on Friday night while Carrier Mills will be home against Galatia in the regular season finale for all four teams.

“They (kids) see Sports Center and they see the Top Ten plays and they want to do that, make a Top Ten play. But we don't need that. We need fundamental plays,” added Coach Graven. “When we attacked the rim and made fundamental plays, we were successful.”