NORWICH – Norwich coach Mark Abbott looked into the eyes of his players before Tuesday’s STAC semifinal playoff game against Elmira Southside, and he saw a group that, by anyone’s definition, was flat.
Abbott’s suspicion was confirmed moments after the opening tip when Green Hornets forward Brent McLaurin stuffed an alley-oop pass less than 15 seconds into the game.
Fortunately, junior Josh Borfitz’s hot three-point shooting, and instant offense from reserve Richie Bonney inflated the once-flat Tornado, and the host team went on to 66-55 win before a capacity crowd at Jack Jones Gymnasium.
Norwich (17-2) plays Vestal Saturday night at 8:45 p.m. at the Binghamton University Event Center for its first STAC title since the 1993-1994 season. Norwich beat Vestal earlier this season at the STOP-DWI tourney in December by one point.
“Elmira Southside is a fantastic team,” Abbott said after the victory. “They’re athletic and well coached. For us to beat that team is a real feather in our cap.”
Following McLaurin’s early dunk, the Green Hornets consistently beat Norwich up and down the floor. Abbott, who usually keeps his timeouts close to the vest, called a TO just over three minutes into the game after back-to-back transition layups put the visitors up 8-5. Kevyn Walker’s layup off a pass from McLaurin made it 10-7, and started an 8-0 spurt to create a nine-point lead. McLaurin had eight in the first quarter, his last points a follow-up dunk after Mike Backer’s miss that left the score 18-9.
Bonney started Norwich’s turnaround with an elbow set shot, and Casey Edwards dropped in a deuce slicing the lead to 18-13 after one quarter.
“We didn’t look good in the first quarter,” Abbott summed up. “I wasn’t happy with the way we were playing early on. Somehow we found a way to keep it close in the second quarter.”
Norwich had it as close a 25-23 in the second stanza with Bonney contributing five more points. The Tornado had what appeared to be the final possession of the half, but turned the ball over before getting a shot off. Bryan Gilbert pushed the ball up the right side of the floor, and he found Walker on the right baseline, who stuck a jumper just before the halftime buzzer.
Enter the shooting wizardry of Borfitz. Limited to five points in the first half after more misses than makes, the junior lefty gunslinger was nearly spot-on the second 16 minutes.
Borfitz tied the game for the first time at 30-30 with 4:38 left in the third quarter with a three ball, and just over a minute later, hit another three off an inbounds pass to knot the game at 33-33.
“After the first two went in, I felt like all of them were going in,” Borfitz said. “I just got some great screens from David (Carson) and Vaughn (Labor).”
And nearly every three-point attempt did go in – not just for Borfitz, but Bonney as well.
