NORWICH — In less than 24 hours, Norwich went from rusty and ragged on offense to poised and polished. All the while, the in-your-face man-to-man defense stifled the opposition.
The Purple Tornado upended Oneida late Saturday afternoon, 68-52, and combined with a 45-40 victory on Friday over Oxford, claimed its first Tom Schwan Memorial/Mang Insurance Agency tournament title since the 2003 season.
Oxford and Oneida play Tuesday for second place in the round robin format. “No disrespect to Oxford and Oneida, but as a Norwich person, there would have been nothing worse for us than coming back on Tuesday and watching Oxford and Oneida play for the tournament title,” said Norwich head coach Mark Abbott.
Robert Martin made his first four three-point attempts in the first quarter and Nate Foote swished his three ball attempt, and Norwich raced to a 24-13 lead over the Indians.
The Tornado lead never dipped lower than nine points the rest of the way, and reached as many as 17 in the second quarter after a Chris Mattingly hoop. Nine Norwich players found the bottom of the net compared to just four in a nail-biter over the Blackhawks, and Martin finished with a career-high 21 points and Foote added 14. “It looks a whole lot better when you’re making shots,” Abbott said. “We didn’t shoot a good percentage the night before (28 percent), but we really didn’t take that many bad shots. We knew Oneida liked to play more up-tempo, and thought that would be to our liking. We just seemed to get into a rhythm faster tonight.”
Despite finding points about as hard to come by as a new Sony PS3, the Tornado avenged last year’s defeat to Oxford.
Norwich was held to just 17 points total over the middle two periods, and Scott Seiler’s layup with 7.5 seconds left in the third quarter put the Blackhawks up 34-33 entering the last stanza.
And it looked good for Oxford when, Trevor Nelson scored on a back-door pass from Seiler with 2:50 left in the game to make it 40-36. Still, that was Oxford’s first basket in nearly four minutes, and thanks to eight turnovers forced by the Tornado defense in the final eight minutes, the last time any Oxford shot attempt would clear the iron cylinder.
Amos Parry started a 9-0 NHS spurt to end the game scoring on a layup off a Shane Thompson pass. Fouled on the play, Parry’s free throw left it at 40-39. After yet another Oxford turnover, Mattingly drove and dished to an open Parry at the foul line, who canned the go-ahead points. Martin and Foote had a pair of free throws in the final minute to ice the game. “We were in a tough situation and losing this game, but we found a way to win,” Abbott said. “That’s a real character builder in itself.”
Foote almost single-handedly kept Norwich in the game netting 21 of Norwich’s 33 points through three quarters, and he finished with a game-high 25 points in his first varsity game. Parry added 12 markers including six in the pivotal fourth.
Ben Burdick led Oxford scoring 12 points.
Notes: Martin was 5-for-5 on his three-point attempts in Saturday’s contest, and Foote was 7-for-9 over the two games from behind the three-point arc... .Norwich held Oneida to 33 percent shooting, the same connection rate it held Oxford to on Friday... .Norwich outrebounded Oneida, 38-32 led by Parry’s nine caroms. Vaughn Labor and Justin Ballin snatched six boards apiece... .Parry filled up the stat sheets in Saturday’s victory adding six assists, three blocked shots, and three steals. Foote matched Parry with six assists and three steals as well... . in the junior varsity contests, Norwich split its two games beating Oxford, 59-26, and losing to Oneida, 65-47.
Norwich 68, Oneida 52
