Boys’ Basketball

Norwich 65, Elmira 50

ELMIRA – Around these parts, a STAC basketball championship comes about as frequently as a state title.

Norwich will vie for its first league title in 20 years Friday after eliminating Elmira from the league semifinals for the second straight season Wednesday evening. The unbeaten Purple Tornado (17-0) will meet Union-Endicott in the league finals Friday at 7:45 p.m. at the Binghamton Events Center.

Elmira was coming off a 93-point effort in a win over U-E last week. After a breakneck opening quarter in which both clubs scored almost at will, the Tornado slowed down the Express without slowing down the game.

Elmira’s offense was so befuddled by Norwich’s defensive five, it had just seven points over the final eight minutes of play.

“We called a timeout with four minutes left, and I saw we were leading by eight (55-47),” Collier said. “I told (the team) that we were NOT giving up eight points in the last four minutes. We just played absolute lock-down defense.”

True to Collier’s words, Norwich didn’t give up eight points, in fact, it didn’t allow a single field goal the second half of the fourth quarter. Instead, Elmira was limited to three free throws the rest of the way. It was a far cry from Elmira’s offensive explosion a week ago, and if not for its quick start, the Express may have struggled to crack 40 points.

“At the end of the game, we leaned on what we do best – our defense,” Collier said. “It was a tremendous defensive effort by all of our players.”

Zan Stewart led all scorers with 19, and he was the chief defender of Elmira’s top scorer, Tyler Moffe. Moffe scored 12 points, five below his season average. Senior Mike Sutton had a season-low six points, but his overall floor game drew plaudits from Collier, and Sutton was essentially the roving defender switching off whomever had the hot hand on the Elmira side. Sutton helped limit Elmira’s second leading scorer, Alex Bellardini, to just four points. Meanwhile, NHS’s two-headed rotation of Matt Burke and Carlos Ithier at guard took turns checking Elmira’s third double figures scorer, Eli Thomas. Thomas had one of Elmira’s two hoops in the fourth, but mustered just five points.

“Elmira has a lot of talent, and they have a new coach who was a college coach,” Collier. “They were very well prepared for us, but at the end of the game, it was our defense that sealed the game for us, and they couldn’t stop our offense.”

Stewart scored all but three of his 19 points in a first-half offensive display that was summed up by Collier as “incredible.”

And the points for Stewart came off the opening tip. Norwich’s patented tip play initiated by center Storm Cook nearly worked to perfection. Cook controlled the tip to a teammate, who fed Michael Sutton for a layup. Sutton missed the chippie, but Stewart cleaned up the miss with a putback. The lanky junior hit a pull-up three-pointer, a pull-up 15-footer on a fast break, and he drove and dished an assist to Cook for a layup – all in the first quarter.

Elmira kept pace led by Tavon Hamilton. Hamilton scored after an offensive rebound wth three minutes left in the first half drawing his team to 31-27. Moments later, Stewart was dead-on with his second trey of the first half raising the lead back to seven, 34-27.

The theme of answering some Elmira momentum continued for Norwich after halftime. With Norwich missing five straight free throws at one point, Elmira trimmed Norwich’s lead to 45-41 after a Thomas layup. Almost immediately, the Tornado raised the lead back to seven. Stewart drove the lane, and kicked out to a wide-open Ithier for a trifecta.

The Norwich lead was no less than seven the rest of the way, and after shaky free throw shooting early in the second half, made six of its last seven attempts. Mike Oralls, Stewart, and Ithier all added layups to push the lead into the double digits and propel Norwich forward in the league tournament.

“We were missing some free throws early in the second half because we just had too much adrenaline going,” Collier said, who noted the missed free throws were all on the long side. “This was a great learning lesson in an intense game, and we have some huge games coming up. At the end of the game, we were able to calm down and stroke our free throws.”

Cook added 17 points for Norwich, Oralls had 11, and Ithier scored nine.

Norwich: Michael Oralls, 4 2-2-11; Mike Sutton, 3 0-2-6; Chris Trevisani, 0 0-0-0; Carlos Ithier, 3 2-2-9; Colin Stewart, 1 0-0-2; Zan Stewart, 7 3-5-19; Matt Matt Burke, 0; Storm Cook, 7 2-6-17; Jamison Luke, 0 1-2-1. Totals: 25 10-19-65.

Elmira: Alex Bellardini, 2 0-0-4; Tyler Moffe, 4 2-2-12; Tyler Lynch, 0; Nurstadt, 2 1-2-6; Travon Hamilton, 8 1-3-17; Eli Thomas, 2 1-2-5; Rayshawn Brooks, 1 0-0-2; Calvin Blish, 1 0-0-2; Jadakis Brooks, 1 0-0-2. Totals: 21 5-9-50.

Nor. 21 15 14 15–65

Elm. 19 8 16 7–50