BINGHAMTON – Norwich coach Mark Abbott called the second quarter a lull. The reality is that Seton Catholic Central produced the best quarter of basketball against the Tornado this season.
The Saints marched to a 14-0 spurt to open the second stanza, and carried the momentum of the propitious surge to a 64-57 win in the STOP-DWI Regional Division One finals Tuesday night at the Broome County Arena.
“We were right there and playing well,” Abbott said of the first quarter. “We got too passive offensively in the second quarter, and a couple times we were a step late defensively. We found ourselves in a big hole.”
Reserves Tommy Torto and Bob Garbade figured heavily in a 23-8 stanza. Torto nailed all three of his three-point attempts, the last at the second-quarter buzzer as he was falling out of bounds to make it 30-19. Garbade, a 6-foot-9 intimidating presence, showed marked improvement over last year netting six of his game-high 18 points.
Norwich ended the Seton run with a Josh Borfitz three ball and Vaughn Labor’s free throw to draw the count back to 21-15. Garbade picked up a loose ball to score on the next possession, and Garbade put back an offensive rebound to raise the margin back to 10 points.
“Garbade was tremendous and was a big key to their winning the game,” Abbott said. “We did an awfully good job putting the ball in good scoring position, but he would come up with the big block or intimidation. He didn’t play a whole lot in their earlier games, but he sure was effective tonight.”
Norwich followed up the lackluster first half with some of its best offensive basketball of the season. Down 35-21 early in the second half after a pair of Matt Meier buckets, Norwich found its offensive rhythm. Corey Dietrich, David Carson, Timmy Clark, Labor, and Casey Edwards contributed on the offensive end to keep the game in single digits entering the fourth quarter.
Norwich closed to within 52-47 on Dietrich’s pull-up jumper in the lane with 3:23 remaining, and were once again within five points at 2:34 on another Dietrich bucket.
