Boys’ Basketball

Norwich 89, Owego 18

NORWICH – Not since the state championship seasons 20 seasons ago has a Norwich team so thoroughly thrashed the opposition.

Playing its home opener two days before Christmas Tuesday night, Norwich presented the faithful with a barrage of points to win its fourth straight game heading into this weekend’s Stop-DWI Tournament.

Owego went six minutes before scoring its first basket of the game, settled for just two free throws to start the second half before converting a field goal with 1:52 left, and didn’t make a basket – or score a single point – in the fourth quarter.

And that last quarter was against Norwich’s second unit. Yes, not a starter on the floor for the Purple Tornado over the last eight minutes as the “second string” compiled a 24-0 final stanza.

The Tornado bench scored 47 points for the game with sixth man Jordan Vinal scoring a team-high 13 points on 6-for-6 shooting. “We know our bench is pretty good, it was just one of those games where we couldn’t miss tonight, and they couldn’t make a shot,” said Norwich coach Tom Collier.

Norwich shot 60 percent from the field for the game, and Owego was just 17 percent on its attempts.

Norwich had runs of 12-0, 8-0, and 14-0 in the first half, and closed the quarter with eight more unanswered points including back-to-back three balls in the final minute from Zan Stewart.