Lady Tornado punch ticket to Section IV championship game with win over Oneonta

NORWICH – The Norwich Lady Purple Tornado are returning the Floyd L. Maines Arena for the first time the 2014-2015 season after defeating the Oneonta Yellowjackets 67-40 in the Section IV Class B girls basketball semifinal Tuesday night.

The Purple Tornado drained nine 3-pointers in the contest and played hard-nosed, full court pressure defense – like they have all season long – to cruise to the win over their Southern Tier Athletic Conference divisional foe Oneonta.

“We were sloppy, especially on offense,” said Norwich’s Head Coach Josh Bennett following the game Tuesday. “After looking through the film, I thought we played better defensively than I felt we did live.

“I also felt we grinded the game out well on a night when we didn’t have our best offensively. I’m happy with the way we grinded the game out offensively on a night we didn’t have our best stuff.”

Like a game earlier this season between the two teams, the Tornado and the Yellowjackets went scoreless for the first three and a half minutes of the game.

Norwich had several turnovers, which led to Oneonta shots at the other end of the floor. The Yellowjackets offensively, however, couldn’t convert and the Lady Tornado came away with the defensive rebound to limit Oneonta to one chance.

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With 4:47 left in the first quarter, Oneonta’s Anika Buzzy went 1-for-2 at the free throw line to give the game its first points.

About a minute late, Halea Eaton registered Norwich’s first points with a 3-pointer from the top of the key that was assisted by Nicole Jeffrey kick-out. The next trip down the floor, Eaton knocked down another long ball for the quick six point swing to give the Tornado a 6-1 lead.

Buzzy and Microni scored the other points in the quarter for the Yellowjackets at the foul line as Oneonta went 4-for-6 in the first, racking up all points at the stripe.

Following Microni’s 2-for-2 trip to the line, Norwich went on a 10-0 to close out the stanza as Sydney Coggins hit a shot from beyond the 3-point arc, Abby Flynn scored a basket in the middle, Emily Evans stole the ball at half court and finished at the rim and Triniti Myers drained a deep ball before the buzzer.

That spurt in the final few minutes of the first is what set up the rest of the game for the Tornado.

Oneonta’s Microni came out in the second quarter started to drop the shots through the net as she scored back-to-back baskets, cutting the Norwich lead to eight points.

The Yellowjackets broke the Norwich press and finished with a Buzzy basket to separate the two teams by six.

The Oneonta run quickly came to an end as Buzzy went 2-for-2 at the free throw line for the final points of the first half for the Yellowjackets.

The Tornado once again went on a 10-0 run, scoring all 10 of their points in the quarter during the final stretch before the halftime break.

Out of the locker room, Norwich’s Saige Benedict opened up the second half with a 3-point bucket. Her basket started the back and forth scoring between the two teams.

That was until Eaton went on her own 8-0 run, pushing Norwich’s lead to 20 points with her made free throw at the end of the old fashioned three-point play.

For Oneonta, it was Lanie Johnson creating the points as she scored nine of the Yellowjackets points in the quarter.