Defense Leads Norwich To UV Title
Published: December 31st, 2007
By: Patrick Newell

Defense leads Norwich to UV title

NEW BERLIN – Giving up a point a minute isn’t so good in most sports, but it is pretty darn good in basketball.

Norwich polished off Unadilla Valley in the finals of the UV Holiday Tournament Friday night winning handily, 50-33. It was the seventh straight win for Norwich – six of those on the road – and the 33 points allowed followed up a stingy 31-point defensive effort the previous night against Unatego.

“I thought our kids played well, and we hung with them a lot longer than most people thought we would,” said UV coach Matt Osborne. “We tried to slow the game down in the second half, but we just weren’t able to hit shots.”

The Storm connected on just 5-of-24 shots in the first half and trailed 30-16.

Josh Borfitz came off the bench to score all 10 of his points in the opening half for Norwich hitting buzzer beaters at the end of the first and second quarters – the latter a three-pointer. “I thought we played great team defense the entire tournament,” said Norwich coach Mark Abbott.

Tournament MVP Patrick Coates was steady in each half hitting for eight of his 14 points in the second half, while also grabbing 14 rebounds. Vaughn Labor and Nate Foote chimed in with 11 points apiece giving Norwich four players in double figures for the second time in three games.

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