Norwich 61, Johnson City 52

NORWICH – On any given night in the STAC Central Division, any one of the four teams can beat the other three. Friday night at Jack Jones Gymnasium, it was Norwich’s night.

Norwich seniors Seth Thomsen and Dennis Oralls scored their team’s final nine points, and the Tornado picked up their first division win of the season defeating Johnson City.

Thomsen and Oralls started for last year’s Tornado club, one that was eliminated from the postseason by the Wildcats. “The last thing we talked about before we took the floor was that (Johnson City) ended our season last year,” said Norwich coach Tom Collier. “I think you saw how Dennis, Seth, and Ian (Weaver) answered that. They remembered what happened last year, and it was definitely on their minds.”

Weaver, playing his best game of the season, scored on a layup with 2:58 left. From there, Oralls and Thomsen traded points.

Thomsen penetrated the interior and kicked out a pass to Oralls on the right wing. Oralls stroked the three – his lone trey of the night – giving Norwich a 55-46 lead with 2:16 left. Each player went 3-for-4 from the foul line down the stretch as JC failed to mount a rally.

Early in the second half, Thomsen scored on a pair of buckets, and Kyle Edwards finished a layup off an Oralls steal. The Tornado scored the first six points of the third quarter, and with a 28-14 lead, it appeared Norwich was well on its way to a comfortable win.

Isaiah Washington had eight straight points for JC in the middle of the third quarter, and the 14-point NHS lead was sliced to 32-28. Norwich regrouped by the end of the quarter with Danny Carson’s put-back basket after an Oralls miss pushing the Tornado a 41-34 edge heading to the fourth.

Silent for most of the game, Wildcats forward, Grant Vicks, caught fire from beyond the arc. He hit three trifectas in a row, the last from three feet behind the arc to give the Wildcats their first lead, 44-43.

Edwards started a 12-2 Norwich surge with a short jumper that followed Oralls’ offensive rebound and assist. Thomsen was relentless under the basket scoring on a driving layup, and Weaver made a precise bounce pass to Mike Sutton for a running layup.