Norwich dials up intensity in second half

Boys’ Basketball

Norwich 71, Johnson City 42

NORWICH – Norwich’s defense tightened its grip in the second half, and the Tornado pulled away from a game Johnson City club with a dominant second half on senior recognition night.

The Tornado outcored the visitors 36-11 over the final 14 1/2 minutes of the game to post their 12th win of the season.

Patrick Coates scored a game-high 21 points for Norwich, and Justin “Doobie” Ballin had a career-high 16 points – his second straight double figures scoring contest.

“In the first half, with senior night, there were nerves, some added excitement and a lot of subbing,” said Norwich coach Mark Abbott. “In the third quarter, I thought we really buckled down and played great basketball. The first time (we played them) we had a big jump on them early, and tonight it just took a little longer to make that gap for us.”

Johnson City made things interesting through most of the first half trimming the NHS lead to 28-27 on Troy Robinson’s three ball with 2:12 left in the half.

The Purple ended the quarter on an 8-0 spurt getting a layup from Ballin, two baskets from Coates, and a Craig Berg tip-in at the buzzer.

JC was as close as five points early in the second half after Daquan Jones and Jason Phillips canned back-to-back jumpers from the right baseline making it 36-31.

Coates started an 11-2 Norwich run hitting two free throws, Nate Foote had a steal and layup, and Foote later set up a Vaughn Labor layup ending the run. Foote had three straight assists on Norwich baskets late in the quarter, and Coates’ pull-up three-pointer with one second left in the quarter upped the NHS lead to 20 points.

JC continually turned the ball over in the fourth quarter or had shots challenged at every turn scoring just two baskets in the fourth quarter JC wound up just 16-for-54 (30 percent) from the field. Norwich won the rebounding battle 43-27 getting eight boards from Ballin. Foote had eight assists

In the junior varsity contest, the Tornado secured their berth in the STAC junior varsity playoffs winning 62-46 to improve to 17-0 on the season. Alex Williams led four NHS players in double figures scoring 15 points. Richie Bonney added 14, Derek Hughes was next with 13, and Casey Edwards bucketed 10.

JC: Dominic Dellos, 0; Josky Yebo 3 0-0-8, Jason Phillips, 1 0-0-2; Brandon Kuzel, 2 0-0-4; Chris Peet, 0; Troy Robinson, 3 3-4-10; Zach Matuszak, 3 2-7-8; Tyler Kettle, 1 0-2-2; Christian Owens, 1 1-1-3; Daquan Jones, 2 1-2-5. Totals: 16 7-15-42.

Norwich: Tim Clark, 0 2-2-2; Chris Mattingly, 1 0--0-2; Jeff Handy, 0; Patrick Coates, 7 6-7-21; Corey Dietrich, 2 2-3-6; Nate Foote, 3 -0-6; Josh Borfitz, 1 0-0-2; Vaughn Labor, 2 -5-7; David Carson, 2 0-0-4; Brian Wightman, 0; Justin Ballin, 5 6-6-16; Cory Law, 0 1-2-1; Craig Berg, 2 0-0-4. Totals: 25 20-25-71.