NORWICH - The Norwich varsity boys basketball team returned to their home court of Jack Jones Gymnasium to tip-off their long awaited 2020-2021 basketball season. In their Tuesday night season opener against the Blue Devils of Chenango Forks, the Purple Tornado would fall 67-40.

The Purple Tornado ran into early trouble against a more seasoned Chenango Forks team, as NHS fell to an early 15-7 deficit coming out of the first quarter of play.

The second quarter would prove no different as NHS couldn’t find their footing as long range three pointers along with eight of their thirteen attempts at the charity stripe fell in favor of the visiting Blue Devils. Trent Bender scored six of his game high 16 points in the second period for Forks. Norwich countered with a series of drives and passes to beyond the arc gave the NHS shooters plenty of space to get clean looks, however their shots just didn’t fall. Heading into the halftime break, Norwich found themselves in 32-15 deficit.

The Norwich offense finally came alive in the third quarter as Carson Thornton, Torin Lawrence, Keegan Franklin and Andrew Mullen collectively scored all of NHS’ 13 points in the period.

Now enter Chenango Forks’ Trent Bender and Marcus Hanyon.