Girls' Basketball
Norwich 55, Seton Catholic Central 51
NORWICH – In recent games, Norwich struggled with pressure. Friday night, with the game – and season – on the line, the Purple Tornado flourished when the heat was on.
NHS advanced to its fourth Section IV championship game in six seasons avenging a 22-point loss to the Saints from earlier this season. Norwich will have the opportunity to avenge another defeat when it plays Susquehanna Valley Saturday for the Class B title.
"This was the most composure this group has ever played with, and it came against a team that was probably the most athletic we have seen over the last four or five games," said Norwich coach Josh Bennett.
Beating the Saints clearly meant a lot to the players, and it obviously did for the fans as well as the student section stormed the court following the thrilling four-point win. "The girls bought in 100 percent that they didn't want the season to end," Bennett said. "We felt we could go farther than this."
Seton led most of the second and the third quarters, and took a 31-23 lead 49 seconds into the second half on Hannah Strawn's three-pointer.
Led by sophomore Makenzie Maynard, Norwich stormed back. Maynard scored in transition and on a baseline runner, then hit back-to-back threes. Seton countered with a pair of buckets, but Savannah Williams' three-point play put Norwich in front 37-35 with 2:33 left in the third.
"When Kenz made those two threes, I thought we were going to rip the whole thing open," Bennett said.
Norwich almost did put the Saints on ice taking a 48-40 lead with 5:16 left after Carin Kuhn's driving layup and Shelby Benjamin's two free throws.
In just over 2 1/2 minutes, Seton tied the game up. After Lexi Levy's layup, Strawn and Levy canned three-pointers less than a minute apart knotting the game up at 48.
From there, Norwich made more clutch plays, and hit 7 of 11 free throws over the last two minutes. Along the way, Kuhn blocked a Levy three-point attempt at the top of the key, and Williams swatted away a potential layup by the Saints' Julia Hauer.
Maynard scored 18 points in the win, while Meghan Komendarek and Williams scored 10 apiece. "We preached all week about keeping our foot on the gas and not letting Seton get into a rhythm," Bennett said. "Everything they did, we did a great job of responding to it. I couldn't be more proud of our composure and answering the call."
SCC: Lexi Levy, 2 2-2-7; Hannah Strawn, 4 0-0-11; Emily Gibson, 1 0-0-2; Lauren Miller, 6 3-4-15; Faith Kenville, 2 0-0-4; Ajak Metban, 1 0-0-2; Ava McCann, 1 1-2-3; Julia Hauer, 2 3-5-7. Totals: 19 9-13-51.
Norwich: Caitlyn Brown, 1 0-0-3; Carin Kuhn 2 1-2-5; Kassidy Seary, 1 0-0-2; Makenzie Maynard, 6 4-4-18; Meghan Komendarek, 3 4-6-10; Bridget Murphy, 1 0-0-2; Savannah Williams, 3 2-3-10; Shelby Benjamin, 1 3-6-5. Totals: 18 14-21-55.
SCC 11 16 9 15–51
Nor. 12 10 17 16–55
Fouled out: none. Three-point goals: (N) Williams 2, Maynard 2, Brown, (SCC) Strawn 3, Levy. Officials: Springer, Washburn.
Bainbridge-Guilford 43, Unatego 31
