BINGHAMTON – A promising start for the Tornado slowly gave way to an unfavorable if not inevitable ending.
Bishop Ludden grabbed the lead for good at the end of the first quarter, and slowly padded its lead over the final three quarters to eliminate Norwich from postseason competition, 56-44, Saturday afternoon at Binghamton High School. The Gaelic Knights advance to the Class B final four at Glens Falls for the first time since the 2001 season. Norwich, meanwhile, remains winless in intersectional postseason play since capturing the second of its back-to-back state titles in 1994.
“They did a great job defensively against us, and that’s a credit to them,” said Norwich first-year head coach Tom Collier. “The bottom line is that Bishop Ludden was the better team today, and the better team won. It’s hard for us to accept that, but that is what sports is all about. We had a great year. Our goal was to win the sectional title, and we did that. The next goal was the get to Glens Falls, and we just fell short.”
Just 20 seconds into the game, Norwich received a dose of how difficult it would be to score on the Knights. Dennis Oralls drove hard for a basket and drew a foul on his shot attempt. As the shot made its way to the rim, Bishop Ludden sophomore center, Daniel Kaigler, leapt and swatted the ball into the partisan-side bleachers. Kaigler had Norwich shooters adjusting their shots the rest of the way, and that was a big factor in the Tornado’s 34 percent shooting night.
“A lot of the credit to our defense goes to Kaigler,” said Ludden head coach Pat Donnelly. “He blocks shots, he rebounds, and he changes the way people play.”
Boy did he.
Norwich traded leads with Bishop Ludden eight times in the opening quarter, yet it was evident that the Tornado were working a bit harder to score, while the Green-clad Knights smoothly countered Norwich’s buckets. Seth Thomsen had two early scores for Norwich tossing in shots with 9.5-degree difficulty on a 10-point scale. Kyle Edwards netted a spinning layup in transition, and reserve Eric Walling struck gold on an in-rhythm three ball from the top of key that gave Norwich its last lead, 10-8, with just over two minutes to play in the first quarter.
Bishop Ludden point guard, Cameron Littlejohn, stroked in a trifecta just 25 seconds after Walling, and reserve Nick Walker knocked down a pull-up jumper from the corner of the foul line giving his club a 13-10 lead after one quarter.
Norwich’s Walling hit a shorter jumper in the middle of the lane drawing his club to 15-14 with 6:15 left in the first half. The Tornado offense went cold scoring just one bucket the remainder of the half. Ben Hackett scored twice in transition for the Knights to help extend the lead to seven by halftime, although offense was coming at a premium for both clubs at that point.
“They were extending their zone (in the first half) and we had trouble reversing the ball,” Collier said. “We made some adjustments at halftime to set up some back-door cuts, and we got a couple of layups out of that. We also had some good looks at the basket, and shots just didn’t fall.”
At a time when Norwich needed to make its move, Bishop Ludden had an answer (or two) for every instance the Tornado seemed to gain momentum.
Edwards’ three drew Norwich to within 30-24 midway through the third. Two possessions later, the lead was back at 10 points. Matt Rogers cut to the basket and received a nifty dish from Kaigler to score the layup, and Hackett broke free for a layup after Norwich missed a three leading to a Knights breakout.
