NORWICH - Friday, December 4, kicked off another year of the Tom Schwan Memorial Basketball Tournament in Norwich. This year the Purple Tornado cruised to another championship win with victories over Windsor and New Hartford.
In their first game of the tournament, the Purple Tornado played and defeated Windsor 97-34. Norwich got up early in the game and didn’t let up, keeping Windsor’s offense away from the ball and missing few shots on offense. “It was a very good start to the year, everyone got a chance to play and contribute,” said Norwich coach Brian Collier. “The kids were really excited and came out with a lot of energy and jumped on Windsor early and never looked back.”
After scoring 31 points in the first quarter and only holding Windsor to eight, the Purple Tornado tightened up even more on defense and held the visitors to only four more points the rest of the half. Norwich would go into the locker room at half time up 56-12 and with a lot of confidence.
The second half was business as usual for the Tornado as they increased their lead. In their first game Norwich was led by Dashawn King’s 24 points. King shot 10-19 from the field with two three pointers and finished the night with a 52.6 shot percentage from the field. The only player to come close to King’s numbers in Norwich’s first game was Carlos Ithier. Ithier would shoot 7-13 from the field and finish with 17 points. King’s presence on the court seemed to be one of many factors in Norwich’s lopsided victory.
After their first victory, Norwich would face New Hartford in the championship game on Saturday, December 5.
Team statistics: Windsor; Jesse Bennett, 1-0-0 3. Jackson White, 2-0-0 2. Stephen Centorani, 8-4-10 20. Ricardo Sanbria, 2-0-2 4. Lane Colpitts, 1-0-0 2. Nate Hagerman, 1-1-2 3. Norwich; Jake Walsh, 5-0-0 13. Pop Veale, 4-0-0 9. Tre Bonham, 4-3-4 13. Cameron Edwards, 1-0-1 2. Carlos Ithier, 7-1-1 17. Dashawn King, 10-2-3 24. Michael Carson, 1-0-0 2. Alex Wherli, 0-1-2 1. Jordan Vinal, 3-0-0 8. Jamison Luke, 4-0-0 8.
Score by quarter:
Team 1 2 3 4 Total
Windsor 8 4 7 15 34
Norwich 31 25 26 15 97
