ONONDAGA – The Purple Tornado, resembling a hard-charging horse coming down the stretch, had the finish line – the final buzzer – interrupt what could have been a monumental comeback victory.
Possessing the ball with 16 seconds to play, NHS failed to get off a game-winning shot attempt as it fell to Westhill in the Class B regional finals Saturday at Onondaga Community College, 59-58.
Harkening back to last year’s 20-point comeback against Chenango Valley to win the Section IV title a year ago, Norwich trailed 44-28 midway through the third period. A 10-0 run late in the quarter made the contest more competitive, and a 12-4 spurt over the final 3 1/2 minutes left the Purple and White a point shy.
“We just ran out of time,” said Norwich coach Tom Collier. “I really believe that if the game had another 30 seconds, we win it. But we didn’t have another 30 seconds. All the credit goes to Westhill.”
Westhill’s offense had Norwich reeling and out of sync in the third quarter. Already sporting a 35-24 halftime advantage. The Warriors seemed to have solved Norwich’s usually-tough halfcourt defense. Tyler Reynolds and Kevin Karleski scored on back-to-back buckets with nary a defender around them to raise the lead to 16. That prompted a Norwich timeout with 3:49 remaining in the stanza.
“To be honest, we were pretty sloppy on defense the first couple of quarters,” said Norwich senior Kyle Edwards, who said the Norwich bench coaches gave the players an ultimatum. “When we came to the bench, they told us it was now or never, and we can’t wait. We needed to string together some stops and make some baskets.”
There was no indication Norwich was ready to make one of its patented charges. Roland was tearing up the NHS defense scoring 16 in the first half alone and 27 for the game. For 20 minutes of play, it was all Westhill.
The final 12 minutes? If you know anything about Norwich, you knew a rally was coming.
Norwich came up with some defensive stops, but the more pressing task of scoring points was handled with aplomb by junior point guard Mike Sutton. Sutton scored nine of Norwich’s 10 points late in the third over a 3 1/2-minute span. He started with a floater in the lane, lined up and drilled a three, scored off a steal, and added a pull-up jump making it 44-38. Roland stemmed the momentum with a driving three-point play late in the quarter giving his club a nine-point cushion entering the fourth.
A defensive adjustment helped Norwich turn the momentum of the game its way, one that Collier wished he had done sooner. “We started switching off of all screens,” the NHS coach said. “We had prepared well for their back-door cuts, but they were outexecuting us. We knew it was coming, and they still beat us. Switching on their screens was critical for us, and you can kick me in the butt for not going to it sooner.”
Norwich scored six quick points to start the fourth. Zan Stewart drove for a layup, Grant Brightman converted a layup off a feed from Sutton, and Sutton’s driving left-handed layup closed the margin to 47-44.
Westhill gained some breathing room with an 8-2 run of its own. The Warriors went 6-for-6 from the foul line during the salvo, and Roland stole the ball on Norwich’s dribble handoff, and coasted for an easy layup.
After back-to-back baskets by Norwich’s Brightman and Edwards, Westhill’s Jeff Lobello completed a layup after a Roland pass lifting the Section III champ’s lead to 57-50 with 2:30 to play.
Still, Norwich was scoring almost without impedance, and put four points on the board in 19 seconds to again trim the deficit to three. Sutton canned another driving bucket, and Stewart stole the ball on the ensuing inbounds play where he then fed Edwards for the easy hoop.
With Roland tied up by Norwich’s defense, Westhill went to Lobello in the low post for what would be the winning hoop. Lobello scored on the low block from four feet out for the 59-54 lead.
