NORWICH - This weekend marked the second year of the Norwich girls basketball Rentals To Go tournament. This year the Purple Tornado would go home champs after two hard fought games.

Their first game of the weekend, on Friday, December 11, was against Vernon-Verona-Sherill high school. Norwich would win this game handily 68-25.

The Purple Tornado women got going early in their first game of the weekend, scoring 23 to VVS’ 11 points. Norwich clamped down on defense after the first quarter even more to eliminate just about any type of offense VVS attempted to get going.

The Purple Tornado was led by junior Makenzie Maynard’s 14 points throughout the game. Maynard scored 12 in the first half to help her team gain a 43-15 lead over VVS.

Coming out of the locker room in the second half, the story was much of the same for Norwich. The Norwich girls dominated on defense and shot almost lights out on offense to score 17 more in the third quarter while holding VVS to only 6. With the game out of reach Norwich could ease back a little and finish the game with eight more points, giving the game its final of 68-25 and a date with West Genesee high school in the finals the next night.

Team statistics: VVS; Alexa Kiser, 3-2-4 8. Abbey D’Agostino, 0-1-2 1. Therese Pittman, 1-3-7 5. Sara Field, 6-2-4 14. Norwich; Cierra Sherman, 2-0-0 4. Taylor Hansen, 1-0-2 2. Gabby Mirabito, 1-0-0 3. Katelyn Dowdall, 3-0-0 7. Kara Evans, 5-2-6 12. Kassidy Seary, 3-0-0 6. Makenzie Maynard, 6-0-2 14. Meghan Komendarek, 5-3-4 13. Bridget Murphy, 2-2-2 7.

Score by quarter:

Team 1 2 3 4 Total

VVS 11 4 6 7 25

Norwich 23 20 17 8 68

The championship game between Norwich and West Genesee was very different from the Purple Tornado’s first game of the weekend. Norwich would win 45-33 but would have to earn this victory.