NORWICH – The colloquial term for a game such as the one played Wednesday night at Jack Jones Gymnasium is “slobberknocker.”
Norwich flexed its collective muscles in the second half after getting pushed around for two quarters by Horseheads eking out a 44-43 victory to advance to Friday’s Southern Tier Athletic Conference championship game. Norwich will clash with Binghamton Friday night at Union-Endicott High School for the opportunity to repeat as league champions.
“That was two teams that wanted it badly,” said Norwich coach Tom Collier. “Anyone that was at this game tonight will remember it for the rest of their lives.”
Norwich led twice in the first quarter, but was playing catchup most of the game. It took nearly all of the remaining three quarters to do it, but the Purple Tornado finally lassoed the Blue Raiders.
Entering the fourth quarter in a six-point shortfall, 32-26, Norwich nibbled away at Horseheads’ advantage in minute bites, much like Tim Robbins’ lead character chipped away to his escape in “The Shawshank Redemption.”
Ben Clark provided some early resistance to Norwich’s challenge hitting a three for Horseheads to start the fourth, then Clark buried a baseline jumper to counter and Mike Oralls deuce for Norwich.
Over the last seven minutes, though, Horseheads was limited to two buckets and a pair of free throws.
Oralls was integral to the fourth-quarter turnaround. After a free throw by Oralls made it 39-34, Oralls tipped in a Carlos Ithier miss after a Horseheads turnover cutting the margin to 39-36.
Two possessions later, Horseheads had possession of the ball, but a loose ball was knocked into the backcourt. The race was on, and Oralls launched himself parallel to the ground to poke the ball toward the right side of the floor. Ithier came up with the ball and cruised in for the layup closing the deficit to one.
Horseheads turned to 6-foot-5 senior Foster Clark to stem Norwich’s rally, and Clark’s short jumper gave his club some temporary breathing room.
Still, Oralls had the reply on the Norwich end. As the shot clock wound down, Norwich found itself in a scramble, and the ball landed in Oralls hands in the left corner. Oralls promptly pumped in a trifecta tying the game at 41 with just over two minutes to play.
Horseheads called a timeout, but Norwich managed a defensive stop and had an opportunity to take the lead for the first time in the second. Again, a scramble situation ensued as Horseheads locked down defensively. Tre Bonham, who hit two free throws earlier in the quarter for Norwich, nailed a three at the top of the key just before the 30-second-clock horn expired giving NHS the lead for good, 44-41.
Foster Clark scored on a layup in the paint drawing his team to within one with 49 seconds left.
Down the stretch, neither team capitalized on scoring opportunities with Norwich and Horseheads missing two free throws apiece. Horseheads though, retained possession with 3.4 seconds left after the second missed free throw was knocked out of bounds under its basket.
The inbounds pass went to Foster Clark, who had his winning shot attempt blocked by Jamison Luke to seal the NHS win. Luke had a team-high 10 rebounds to go with a season-high six blocked shots.
“This was a gut check for us,” Collier said, who was quick to laud the contributions of many players. “There were a lot of big shots made, but Tre Bonham made probably the shot of the game. Nobody deserved to make that shot more than Tre. He’s a dedicated kid.”
It wasn’t shaping up too pleasantly for Norwich. The hangover from last week’s six-point loss to Oneonta last week crept into the opening quarter and most of the second quarter. Norwich was continually denied around the basket with equal doses of missed shots and highly contested attempts by a stout Horseheads defense.
The two clubs entered the contest as STAC’s top defensive scoring teams, and that was certainly true as each team had to scratch out points against physical, hard-nosed play.
Norwich’s defense, its calling card for all four season’s of Collier’s tenure, did well to contain the Blue Raiders, save senior Foster Clark, who led all scorers with 23 points. Clark had 14 in the first half including a thunderous dunk off a Norwich turnover that made it 16-6.
Norwich’s Oralls hit a runner in the lane, but that was answered by three straight Horseheads buckets. Senior Devonte Gaskins scored back-to-back layups, the latter off an NHS turnover, and Clark bucketed an alley-oop pass from guard Ben Clark lifting the visitors to a 22-8 advantage, their biggest lead of the game.
“We haven’t been down 14 in the first half to anyone this season,” Collier said. “After the Oneonta game, we (the coaching staff) weren’t sure about our team, but we challenged them all week in practice, and they responded in the second half. It was a test of our team’s character, and I can’t tell you how proud I am of this team.”
Oralls led Norwich with 13 points to go with eight rebounds, and Zan Stewart had 11, six coming on a pair of traditional three-point plays in the second half.
Horseheads: Carter McCormick, 0; Jean Paul Owen, 1 0-2-2; Devonte Gaskins, 3 0-2-6; Jean Nickerson, 0; Ben Clark, 4 0-0-10; Jake Malloy, 0; Foster Clark, 10 2-2-23; Nickerson, 0; Pete Camdin, 0. Totals: 18 4-6-43.
Norwich: Jake Walsh, 0; Chris Trevisani, 1 0-0-2; Michael Oralls, 5 2-3-13; Carlos Ithier, 3 0-0-6; Cameron Edwards, 0; Colin Stewart, 0; Zan Stewart, 4 2-6-11 Tre Bonham, 1 2-4-5; Jordan Vinal, 0; Jamison Luke, 3 1-2-7. Totals: 17 7-15-44.
H'heads 12 13 7 11–43
Norw. 6 9 11 18–44
Fouled out: none. Three-point goals: (H) B. Clark 2, F. Clark. (N) Oralls, Z. Stewart, T. Bonham. Officials: Berg, Haynes.