Girls’ Basketball
Oneonta 35, Norwich 27
ONEONTA – Oneonta played the role of spoiler Monday night thwarting the Tornado’s bid at a share of the STAC Central Division title.
The ‘Jackets held Norwich scoreless the final 3 1/2 minutes, and finished the contest on a 9-0 run – all on free throws – to pull away at the end.
Mariah Ruff scored all 12 of her points in the second half, and made four free throws in the final 16 seconds. Kelsey Baker added 11 points, and was 5-for-6 from the charity stripe during the decisive salvo. Baker also nailed a 16-foot jumper at the four-minute mark that had her team in front 26-24.
“I’ve seen Oneonta play four times, and this was the fifth. This was by far their best defensive performance,” said Norwich coach Josh Bennett. “I thought their bigs – 14 (Baker) and 30 (Natalie Vanderlaan-Meyering) were a real key. They made some shots, and that’s something we didn’t expect.”
Norwich took its last lead with 3:29 to play when Breanna Cashman dished to senior Bryn Loomis in the right corner, who buried her third trifecta of the second half to give her club a 27-26 edge.
On the next sequence, Baker, a 5-foot-10 junior, drew a foul on a drive to the basket, and put her club in front for good swishing two free throws.
Norwich failed to score on its next possession, and allowed two more free throws to Baker who raised the count to 30-27. Norwich came up short on its next sequence, but a Loomis steal near midcourt, led to a drive to the basket. Ruff stepped in from of Loomis to draw the charge, and Norwich was never again in position to tie the game.
Bennett was left to contemplate his team’s difficulty to find the bottom of the net as Loomis had 16 points, and 11 of her team’s 15 second-half points. “I think what happens is that when we get into a halfcourt situation late in games, sometimes we struggle,” Bennett said. “We have to be able to create turnovers to get out and run. I think we get up and down the court better than Oneonta, but in a halfcourt game when we can’t run, it’s tough for us to score.”
The loss for Norwich (11-5) was its fifth, and the first back-to-back losses of the season. The Tornado are idle pending any non-league games before sectional play commences in two weeks. “Our goal remains the same, and that is to win a sectional championship and get back to the Arena (Broome County) on March 2,” Bennett said. “We need to go back and work on the things we need to get better at.”
Norwich: Breanna Cashman, 2 1-2-5; Jenni Borfitz, 0 2-4-2; Cassie Sutton, 0; Bryn Loomis, 5 3-4-16; Hailey Dietrich, 0; Sophie Stewart, 1 2-2-4; Taylor Cook, 0. Totals: 8 8-12-27.
