Norwich falls in Class B semifinals to Owego

OWEGO – Owego’s Kobe Bogart and Christian Sage took over the contest late in the third quarter with a 10-0 run between the two of them, sealing the win for the No. 1 seed of the Section IV Class B bracket over the fourth-seeded Norwich Purple Tornado, 60-41.

Bogart finished with 19 points and Sage scored 11 but it was the marksmanship behind the 3-point arc of the Indians’ Evan Hamed that but the game away in the fourth. Hamed drained four of his seven made 3-pointers in the final eight minutes of play.

Norwich was led by their big man in the middle, Skylar Wenzel, who scored 13 to pace the Tornado in their final game of the season.

The game opened with a wide-open long ball for Hamed, who followed it up with another moments later.

Between Hamed’s two made buckets, Wenzel and teammate Marcus Cashman scored at the rim, giving Norwich their only lead of the contest in the early minutes of the first.

Then the Tornado tumbled downward.

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Several offensive possessions for Norwich came up empty due to their turnovers because of bad passes or quick hands by Owego disrupting the dribble.

Hamed’s second 3-pointer of the first quarter started a 9-0 run for the Indians, in which Bogart and Sage once again had a hand in. Sage got an offense rebound and put it right back up and through the net for two points.

Next two trips down the floor ended with Bogart finishes – one contested by Cashman and another a turn -around 15 footer.

Ending the Owego run was Carson Thornton’s step-back 3, shaking off Sage to create space and drain the shot, cutting the lead down to five points.

At the end of the first, Norwich trailed by just six points.

Norwich found their offensive rhythm at the start of the second as Wenzel finished a transition layup on the assist from JT Vinal.

Vinal’s effort had the favor returned when Carson Maynard found his junior teammate open in the middle, cutting the Indians’ lead down to three for the second time in the quarter as the two teams went back-and-forth in the first few minutes.

However, Hamed got things going again for the home team as he started yet another quick spurt for Owego that was slightly interupted by Eli Craddock’s 3-pointer for the Tornado. The Indians went on a 9-3 run before Maynard gathered his own rebound that went long following a 3-point attempt and slashed to the rim for the final points of the first half.