CHENANGO COUNTY – Now that the first round has been completed, five Chenango County basketball teams have reached the quarterfinal round that will take play tonight and tomorrow night.
Later tonight, the Norwich boys team will play their first game of the sectional Class B tournament. Because of the number of teams in Class B, all teams who qualified for sectionals start in the quarterfinals round.
The Purple Tornado will take their 9-8 record on the road to Waverly, the fourth seed. Last year, these two team meet in the Section IV Championship game with Norwich coming out on top.
The Tornado are considered the underdog once again. In order for Norwich to pull off the 4-5 upset, they will need another strong game from senior Michael Carson.
In the last two games Norwich has played, Carson has averaged 22.5 points. He will also need to be big on the boards with teammate Marcus Benjamin and J.T. Vinal. Benjamin and Carson start on the blocks for the Purple while Vinal usually is the first or second player off the bench.
Of course, Carson Maynard and Marcus Cashman will need to have to the outside shot ready on offense. Cashman leads the team in made three-points, hitting 34 on the season (currently shooting 36-percent). Maynard follows close behind with a 29-percent average.
In most of the games the games played this season, Cashman is usually matched up defensively against their top scorer and that will probably not change Friday night.
Key things Norwich needs to do in order to bring home the win; out rebounded Waverly and limit their mistakes. The Purple Tornado average 15.4 per game, which isn’t horrible but isn’t the greatest either.
Norwich is young this season but the youth will have to be strong in tonight’s game.
If Norwich wins, they will play the winner of 1-Owego and 8-Dryden. Should be Owego as they are strong and big this season.
Coming off their first round home win over Watkins Glen by 20, Unadilla Valley will now travel to Union Springs later tonight.
Union Springs is the higher seed but Unadilla Valley is capable of anything this season.
UV’s Andrew Jackson will need to be held well below his average if Union Springs wants to prevent being upset.
Jackson scored a school-record 40 earlier this week and doesn’t look like he will slow down anytime soon. However if he is to be stopped, the Storm will need a big game from Levi Rifanburg as well as Dante Dye, Wyatt Grey or Caleb Parker.
Earlier this season, Jackson was held to his lowest point total of the season against Bainbridge-Guilford in their annual Christmas tournament. However, UV still pulled out the win after receiving 20 from Dye and a strong showing both offensively and on the boards from Rifanburg.
Usually, Jackson still gets his 20-25 points every game but he does share the ball well, allowing others to have also have a big game.
If the Storm pulled off the upset over the second seed, they will move into the semifinal game against the winner of Lansing and Moravia. Moravia is the defending Class C state champion but did lose a good amount of their team last season.
On the girls side, Norwich will host Oneonta on Saturday night for their first game in the sectional tournament. The two teams have met twice already this season with the Lady Tornado taking the win each time.
In each game, Norwich has kicked their level of intensity to another level with strong defense and balanced scoring throughout the team.
