NORWICH –The thousands of miles driven to Sayre, Pa. the past 22 years paid off with Norwich’s first championship.
Norwich captured the 27-team Epiphany Junior High Tournament last weekend winning back-to-back games over Horseheads and three games on Sunday alone. The best-ever prior finish, said head coach Tim Foote, was third place.
“We’re travelling the farthest of any team in the tournament, and that has always made it tough,” Foote said.
The tournament began on Feb. 18, and covered three separate weekends along with a Wednesday, Feb. 29 contest that allowed Norwich to reach the final four.
Foote said the tournament is not affiliated with Norwich High School, and while all of the teams are comprised of players from their area high school, none officially represent that respective high school.
To start the tourney, Norwich eked out a 57-47 overtime victory over Watkins Glen. The next day was a more comfortable 53-36 win over Waverly. One weekend later, Norwich played a pair of Saturday, Feb. 25 games beating the Elmira Express, 51-42 before dropping its only game of the tourney, 63-60, to Elmira Notre Dame.
Foote said the first win over the Elmira Express pitted many of the same players who met in STAC junior varsity semifinals last month, a game won by Elmira, 57-56, at Jack Jones Gymnasium. In the loss to END, Foote said that four freshmen from the contest also played on the Section IV Class C championship game. Alexander Stewart scored 30 points for Norwich in the loss, his high scoring game of the tournament.
