Boys’ Basketball

Norwich 72, Chenango Forks 23

NORWICH – In a contest where seemingly everything went right and a handful of players were obvious factors in a blowout victory, the first person Norwich head coach Mark Abbott singled out was one who did not score a point.

“The typical fan may not have noticed the great job David Carson did today,” Abbott said of his senior forward. “He didn’t score, but he had a number of outstanding post entries to Vaughn Labor and he set tremendous screens. We identified two guys on their team who we needed to stop: Redfern (Casey) and Jeske (Mike). David pretty much shut Redfern down, and Jeske banked in a three for his only basket. It’s efforts like that, that generally go unnoticed by the casual fan, but that’s what makes teams successful.”

What was of the sit-up-and-take-notice variety was the smothering defense by the Tornado. Norwich set a new defensive record allowing the fewest points in the shot-clock era. The performance was punctuated by a scoreless defensive third quarter – just the second time that has happened in Abbott’s 23-year tenure. “I watched the tape of the game, and defensively we were just everywhere,” Abbott said. “We had great communication, great lateral movement, we switched on the dribble handoffs, and guys were jumping at the dribbler.”

Forks had several scoreless droughts throughout the game of at least three minutes. Norwich contested every pass, every dribbler, and every shot. The Blue Devils were forced into two 10-second violations for failing to cross halfcourt, and also had a 35-second-clock shot violation – and that was before the scoreless third stanza.

Offensively, the inside-outside combo of Vaughn Labor and Josh Borfitz keyed and 35-13 halftime lead. Borfitz canned two threes in the first quarter, while Labor bucketed three hoops.

Labor added six more in the second quarter, and the Tornado went a collective 10-for-11 from the charity stripe. Labor finished with 21 points, Borfitz 14, and Richie Bonney came off the bench to net 10. “We played with a lot of confidence, and I was very pleased with the ball movement and spacing,” Abbott said. “When we play unselfishly, we’re very good.”

Norwich (6-0) hosts Chenango Valley Tuesday.

Chenango Forks: Patrick Creagh, 2 0-0-5; Matt LaVasseur, 1 2-2-4; Mike Hogan, 0; Corey Gilden, 4 2-3-10; Corey Bruet, 0 1-2-1; Dan Grady, 0; Tim Zdimal, 0; Chris Spear, 0 0-2-0; Mike Jeski, 1 0-0-3; Casey Redfern, 0. Totals: 8 5-9-23.

Norwich: Casey Edwards, 0; Richie Bonney, 2 6-7-10; Corey Dietrich, 2 1-4-5; Tim Clark, 2 1-2-5; Josh Borfitz, 5 0-0-14; Vaughn Labor, 7 7-9-21; Seth Thomsen, 1 3-5-5; David Carson, 0; Derek Hughes, 1 2-4-4; Cory Law, 2 1-2-6; Andrew Austin, 1 0-2-2; Christian Hotaling, 0. Totals: 23 21-35-72.

CFks 8 5 0 10—23

NHS 18 17 18 19—72

Fouled out: (CF) Redfern, Grady. Three-point goals: (N) Borfitz 4, Law. (CF) Jeske, Creagh. JV: Chenango Forks won. Officials: Szelkowski, Springer.

Cooperstown 50, S-E 47

COOPERSTOWN – Sherburne-Earlville took unbeaten Cooperstown to the final seconds before dropping a three-point final Saturday.

Cody Schraft hit a tying basket for the Marauders with 26 seconds remaining in regulation. The Redskins answered on Ryan Davine’s game-winning three ball with just over five seconds left. “We had a guy with a hand in (Davine’s) face, so it wasn’t like we let down. He made a difficult shot,” said S-E coach Kevin Vibbard.

The Marauders spotted Cooperstown a 10-0 lead in the first quarter, but rallied and looked poised for an upset taking a four-point lead in the fourth quarter. “I think this game shows we can play with anybody in our league,” Vibbard said. “I believe Cooperstown is one of the favored teams, and we were right there with them.”

Schraft led the S-E charge in the second half scoring 14 of his season-high 19 points. Sean Boise added 12 points.

Cooperstown: Ryan Davine, 10 3-7-26; Brad Ashford, 4 0-0-9; Mack Curran, 3 0-0-7; Kyle Liner, 0; Kyle Steere, 1 2-2-4; Kowski Niedzail, 0 0-3-0; Brandon Lane, 1 2-2-4. Totals: 19 7-14-50.

S-E: Brett Nelson,0 ; Caleb Brown, 4 0-0-8 ; Ethan Johnson, 0 ; Andrew Parks, ; Branden McDaniel, 0; Sean Boise, 6 0-0-12; Phil Price, 2 0-0-4; Ryan Collins, 2 0-0-4; Cody Schraft, 8 0-0-19. Totals: 22 0-0-47.