Boys’ Basketball
Norwich 69, Maine-Endwell 38
NORWICH – Maine-Endwell is a pretty fair club in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference. Norwich just made the Spartans look bad – again.
The Tornado clinched a tie for the STAC Central Division championship Friday night holding M-E under 40 points for the second straight game, and not allowing a double-figures scorer a second straight time as well. “I’m not an easy guy to impress, but the guys certainly impressed me Friday night,” said Norwich coach Mark Abbott. “We played fantastic at both ends of the court, and they had no answer for us.”
M-E’s main offensive threat, Joe Powell, who averages 17 points a game, had four in this latest outing against Norwich, and just 10 in two games versus a stingy Purple defense. Norwich switched defenses multiple times, and when it was in man-to-man mode, Corey Dietrich blanketed Powell. “Our goal was to play four-on-four, and take Powell out of the equation,” Abbott said. “We did a great job of doing that.”
David Carson scored a team-high 17 points, and put eight of those on the board in Norwich’s 18-9 first quarter. The lead grew to 20 by halftime, 37-17. Dietrich had six in the quarter, and the balanced scoring was plainly obvious. Carson led with 10, Dietrich had nine, Vaughn Labor eight, and Timmy Clark seven.
If that wasn’t enough, Norwich scored the first 15 points of the third quarter to put the game on ice. Josh Borfitz hit two three-pointers during the spurt, Carson had a traditional three-point play, and Carson added two free throws after drawing a foul on a drive to the basket.
Dietrich added 16 points in the win and Labor 11. Norwich (13-2) was a solid 16-for-20 from the free throw line in winning its fourth straight game. “The guys know what is out there in front of them,” Abbott said. “We’re closer to a division title and an opportunity to host a league semifinal playoff game. I like the way we are playing right now.”
Norwich plays at Seton Catholic Central Wednesday night.
Notes: Norwich finished 24-for-39 from the field (61.5 percent), and discounting the 5-for-12 from behind the three-point arc, converted 70 percent of its field goal attempts. Clark led with 12 assists and five steals. M-E shot 13-for-51 (25.5 percent) from the field and turned it over 21 times to 13 for Norwich.
M-E: Eric Thompson, 0; Tom Connolly, 1 0-0-2; Joe Powell, 2 0-0-4; Cory Adrian, 2 0-1-4; Federowicz, 2 1-3-5; Ruby, 2 0-0-6; Jon Connolly, 2 3-4-9; Barrett, 0 1-2-1; Willis Stocks, 2 3-6-7. Totals: 13 8-15-38.
Norwich: Casey Edwards, 2 0-1-4; Richie Bonney, 1 0-0-2; Corey Dietrich, 7 0-0-16; Tim Clark, 2 2-2-7; Josh Borfitz, 2 1-2-7; Vaughn Labor, 3 5-6-11; Seth Thomsen, 1 0-0-2; David Carson, 6 5-5-17; Derek Hughes, 0; Cory Law, 0 2-2-2; Christian Hotaling, 0 1-2-1. Totals: 24 16-20-69
M-E 9 8 10 11–38
NHS 18 19 19 13–69
Fouled out: none. Three-point goals: (ME) Ruby 2, Connolly 2, (N) Dietrich 2, Borfitz 2, Clark. JV: M-E won 73-65. Officials: Dadamio, Haynes.
Oxford 53, Afton 37
OXFORD – A nine-day layoff left some rust on Oxford’s offensive game, but the defense was as sharp as ever in Saturday’s MAC division win Saturday.
It was the ninth straight win for Oxford (12-3), who hold a two-game lead over Afton with four league games remaining.
“We played good defense throughout the game, and we were up 25 points when I took my starters out with four minutes left,” said Oxford coach Tim Davis.
Afton hung within 16-12 after one period, but scored just seven points over the middle quarters to trail by 19. “They made a few shots against our zone in the first quarter,” Davis said. “We switched to man-to-man in the middle quarters, and shut them down.”
Cory Seiler had a game-high 21 points for Oxford, and Alex Champlin tallied 18 points, while grabbing nine boards.
Afton: Clayton Andrews , Adam Davis 1 0-0-2, Casey Mohrien 1 1-3-3; Corey Mohrien 0 1-2-1, Michael Muller 5 3-5-17, Adam Rupakus 4 1-1-9, Corey Westfall 1 2-2-5, Dylan Wilson, 0. Totals: 12 8-13-37.
Oxford: Brett Trask, 2 0-0-4; Chris Covey, 0; Cory Seiler, 8 3-4-21; Alex Champlin, 8 2-2-18; Zack Barry, 0; Ethan Paul,0; Devin Slater, 0; Ralph Renaud, 1 0-0-2; Jeremy Nelson, 1 0-0-2; Tom Gould, 3 0-0-6. Totals: 23 5-6-53.
Aft. 12 3 4 18–37
Oxf. 16 13 9 15–53
Fouled out: none. Three-point goals: (O) Seiler 2. (A) Muller 4, Westfall; JV: Oxford won 56-24. Officials: Bennett, Legg.
Sherburne-Earlville 52, Canastota 46
CANASTOTA – Sherburne-Earlville dominated the fourth quarter, and used a 9-0 run midway through the stanza to secure its fifth win, and also stop a six-game losing streak.
During the absence of victories the past three weeks, S-E lost five by single-digit margins, and two were in overtime. “We made the plays we needed to make in the fourth quarter, and we came out and played the entire second half with a sense of urgency,” said S-E coach Kevin Vibbard.
Trailing Canastota 39-36 with 6:37 left, S-E held the host club scoreless for nearly four minutes, and Caleb Brown’s three-pointer gave the Marauders a 45-39 lead. Sean Boise scored six in the last quarter, Brown five, and Ethan Johnson four. S-E (5-11) also made 6-for-8 from the charity stripe over the last eight minutes.
S-E trailed by as many as 13 points in the first half. Ryan Collins had six points over the last 1:40 of the first half as S-E pulled to within 28-20 at intermission.
Boise led with 16 points and 11 rebounds, Collins finished with 10 points and nine boards, and Brown scored 10 points.
S-E plays at Westmoreland tonight.
S-E: Brett Nelson, 0; Caleb Brown, 3 2-4-10; Ethan Johnson, 2 2-2-7; Andrew Parks, 0; Branden McDaniel, 1 0-0-3; Sean Boise, 6 3-5-16; Phil Price, 2 0-0-4; Ryan Collins, 5 0-0-10; Cody Schraft, 1 0-0-2. Totals: 20 7-11-52.
Canastota: Micaroni, 3 0-0-7; Shea Cerio, 1 0-0-2; Keefe Casolare, 2 1-2-5; Nick Margi, 4 2-3-10; B. Marsh, 2 2-3-6; Anton Motley, 2 2-4-6; Kevin DiGaspari, 2 0-0-4; Tom Zupan, 2 2-2-6. Totals: 18 9-14-46.
S-E 11 9 13 19–52
Can. 14 14 9 9–46
Fouled out: none. Three-point goals: (C) Micaroni, (SE) Brown 2, Johnson, McDaniel, Boise. JV: S-E won. Officials: Ruch, Kozlowski.
Sidney 51, Greene 47
