ELMIRA – For the first time in 18 years, the Norwich Girls Basketball team is on top of the Southern Tier Athletic Conference. With their convincing 74-39 victory over the Owego Indians Friday night at Elmira High School, the Purple Tornado handed the previously-undefeated Indians their first loss of the season.
Norwich made 10 3-pointers in the contest, nine of them coming in the first half when the Tornado went into the break leading by 18 points. Owego did not register one made 3-pointer in the game, giving Norwich the 30-0 advantage leading to their 35 point victory.
Four made shots from behind the arc in the first quarter came by the shooting hands of four different Lady Tornado players – Sydney Coggins, Halea Eaton, Triniti Myers, and Nicole Jeffrey – as the team totaled a 26-point opening game stretch. Eaton’s 3 ball closed the quarter out with a buzzer-beater.
On the other side of the floor, Owego’s stand-out Kaci Donovan tallied 10 of her 20 first-half points while teammate Anna Felice made three trips the foul line, going 5-for-6 to help keep the Indians close.
To start the second, Donovan converted an old-fashioned 3-point play, pulling Owego within single digits. However, the long-range shooting by Norwich sparked a 12-2 run in the first four minutes of the stanza to change the lead from eight points to 18 points quickly.
Using ball-movement and penetration from the guards, the Tornado got the ball to the open player who in return knocked the shot down.
Taylor Hansen of Norwich started the run with an and-1 play after she drove baseline and was fouled on her way up for the floater that she sent through the net. Making the free-throw, Hansen erased Donovan’s 3-point play to put Norwich back on top by 11.
Then back-to-back 3-pointers were made by teammate Myers after receiving passes from Hansen, who was driving the open lane to draw the defenders away.
Sneaking out on the fast break was Felice finishing the layup, breaking up the run for a brief second.
Back at the Norwich offensive end, Myers and Hansen connected again as it looked almost like Norwich was running instant replay. Hansen drove, kicked to Myers and the hot shooting hand for the Tornado drained her third 3-pointer of the quarter with 4:33 left in the first half.
The next two minutes became the Donovan show as she went on a 7-0 run on her own to bring Owego within 11 of the Tornado. She used another bucket and the foul, a rebounded put-back and a 15-foot jumper to score the seven points.
Her teammate Ella Kopalek added a made foul shot to cut another point of the Norwich lead with 2:17 left in the quarter.
However, back came the Lady Purple Tornado. Saige Benedict made the second of two free throws before Hansen finished at the rim to extend their lead to 13. A 3-pointer by Coggins and one by Hansen finished the first half off, sending Norwich into the locker room at the intermission leading 47-29.
Following the break, the balanced scoring of Norwich returned to see five players – Emily Evans and Haliey Colabelli picking up their first points of the game in the quarter – to score another 20 points in the stanza.
