Boys’ Basketball
Norwich 57, Chenango Valley 35
NORWICH – How much has Norwich progressed this season? The answer is a simple comparison between its opening STAC league game and this past Friday night’s offering.
The Purple Tornado scored the game’s first 10 points, led 20-4 after one period, and was never challenged in a blowout victory over the Warriors. Seven weeks earlier, Norwich opened its league schedule against this same CV club, and escaped with an eight-point win.
It was a night-and-day performance for NHS, now 13-2 on the season and unbeaten against Class B competition for three-plus seasons.
Michael Oralls had his second straight 20-point performance for Norwich finishing with a team-high 21 points, and he authored what may have been the first alley-oop three-pointer. Jamison Luke scored 10 points and had seven boards, and Zan Stewart dished out six assists to go with seven rebounds.
“We made a lot of mistakes down there earlier this season, and still came away with the win,” said Norwich coach Tom Collier. “We played a lot better tonight. Of course playing at home helps, and it energizes our guys.”
Similar to the first quarter, Norwich started the second half on an 11-0 run, the highlight coming from Oralls and his improbable three. On its third possession of the half, Norwich had the ball knocked out of bounds under its basket with one second left on the shot clock. The ball was thrown in to Oralls, who was well outside the three-point arc. In one motion, Oralls caught the ball in the air, and launched a line drive shot that found the bottom of the net.
Oralls ran back on defense, a smile of surprise filling up his face. “I’ve been coaching Michael since he was in seventh grade,” Collier said. “Those are the shots he makes; he makes the impossible happen.”
Oralls scored 10 in the third quarter, and didn’t play another minute. In truth, Norwich had the reserves in the game nearly the entire fourth quarter, a far cry from earlier this season when Norwich was pushed for all 32 minutes by the Warriors.
"Chenango Valley is a very good shooting team that is averaging over 60 points a game," Collier said. "Our halfcourt defense was really good. We held them to 29 percent shooting and only 35 points."
Carlos Ithier had five assists for Norwich, who had 18 team assists on 23 baskets. However, for the second straight game, Norwich struggled in the second quarter and had more turnovers than it would have liked. "We're not taking care of the ball as well as we need to, but I think a lot of that has to do with several of our kids being sick, and they're tired," Collier said.
Norwich’s junior varsity improved its mark to 11-3 overall beating the Warriors, 55-43. Dashawn King scored 26 points for Norwich, and Mike Carson added eight.
CV: Caleb Hertzog, 4 0-0-9; Ryan Phillips, 0 0-2-0; Brian Cox, 1 0-0-3; Nick Ehrensbeck, 0; Bill Eccleston, 0; Owen Klepfer, 0; Jake Hertzog, 1 2-5-4; Mark Mullins, 7 1-2-16; Kolby Ross, 0 1-2-1; Assad Murreld, 1 0-0-2; Gavin Wolcott, 0. Totals: 14 4-11-35.
Norwich: Jake Walsh, 1 0-0-3; Chris Trevisani, 0; Michael Oralls, 7 6-8-21; Matt Parrella, 0; Carlos Ithier, 3 0-0-7; Cameron Edwards, 0; Colin Stewart, 3 0-0-6; Zan Stewart, 1 0-0-2; Tre Bonham, 2 0-0-5; Jordan Vinal, 1 0-0-3; Jamison Luke, 5 0-0-10. Totals: 23 6-8-57.
Ch. Valley 4 7 11 13–35
Norwich 20 4 21 12–57
Fouled out: none. Three-point goals: (N) Walsh, Oralls, Ithier, Bonham, Vinal. (CV) C. Hertzog, Mullins, Cox. JV: Norwich won 55-43. Officials: Ciotoli, Stepanovsky.
Delhi 64, Unadilla Valley 46
DELHI – Delhi advanced to the MAC finals against Sidney next weekend, ending Unadilla Valley's six-game winning streak in the league semifinals Friday.
After UV closed a 15-point halftime deficit to six with a strong third quarter, Delhi held the Storm scoreless the first three minutes of the fourth to push the lead back to double digits.
UV (12-5) made its run in the third behind seven points from Ryan Postma and five from Ethan Grey. Both junior guards had threes in the stanza.
"They don't have one star athlete, but they have whole bunch of kids that play really good defense," said UV coach Matt Osborne of Delhi. "Everything we got, we had to earn."
Postma led the Storm with 19 points. UV hosts Greene on Thursday.
UV: Ryan Postma, 6 5-6-19; Dylan Thomsen, 2 0-0-5 ; Jon Schermerhorn, 2 0-0-5; Ethan Grey, 3 0-0-8 ; Tyler Simmons, 0; Brett Hanslmaier, 1 1-2-3; Sam Tuttle, 0 2-4-2 ; Hank deGlee, 2 0-0-4. Totals: 16 8-12-46 .
Delhi: Michael Staples, 5 6-7-17; Ben Branigan, 0; Max Hulbert, 0 1-2-1; Nate Denison, 3 0-0-6; Connor Gioffe, 2 6-8-11 ; Nate Craft, 3 1-4-7 ; Cody Brewster, 3 1-2-8; Rich Craft, ; Brandon Lein, 2 0-0-4; Matt Ennist, 4 2-3-10. Totals: 22 17-26-64 .
UV 12 13 14 7–46
Del 20 20 5 19–64
Fouled out: (D) Ennist. Three-point goals: )UV) Postma 2, Grey 2, Thomsen, Schermerhorn, (D) Staples, Gioffe, Brewster. JV: UV won.
Sherburne-Earlville 68, Adirondack 24
BOONVILLE - Sherburne-Earlville rebounded from its first loss in two months routing Adirondack Saturday afternoon.
Every player on the Marauders scored, and scored at least two baskets. Ben Khoury scored 16 points, the only S-E player to finish in double figures scoring. Matt Hull added nine points, while Gavin Giroux and Dylan Seymour tickled twine for eight apiece.
"We had a lot of nice contributions, and everyone got a lot of minutes," said S-E coach Kevin Vibbard. "We played some great defense, and to hold a team to just two two-point baskets in a game is unbelievable."
S-E (14-3) hosts Camden today.
S-E: Ian Fleming, 2 0-0-4; Matt Hull, 3 2-4-9; Dylan Seymour, 4 0-0-8; Derek Capria, 2 2-2-7; Keith Rose, 3 1-4-7; Ben Khoury, 6 4-5-16 ; Jared Jillson, 2 0-2-4; Brady Elderkin, 2 1-6-5; Gavin Giroux, 3 2-7-8. Totals: 27 12-30-68.
Adir: Brian McConnell, 1 1-2-4; Devin Banks, 0; Kyle Swiecki, 0; Sage Bailey, 0; Duncan O’Brien, 0 1-2-1; Parker Kale, 1 0-0-3; Shane McConnell, 2 1-2-7; Gavin Chambers, 0; Ethan Wiedner, 3 0-0-7; Brodie Sweeney, 0 2-4-2; Randall Broadbent, 0. Totals: 7 5-10-24.
S-E 15 16 17 19–68
Adir 8 6 2 8–24
Fouled out: (A) Swiecki. Three-point goals: (SE) Hull, Capria. (A) McConnell, McConnell 2, Kale, Wiedner. JV: S-E won 46-34.
