Boys’ Basketball

Norwich 81, Whitney Point 30

NORWICH – Norwich put the brakes on a recent two-game slide Wednesday night using two big runs in the first half to jet away from visiting Whitney Point. The victory was also number 10 on the season for the Tornado, who are off the next nine days.

“One of our goals each season is to get double figures wins,” said Norwich coach Mark Abbott. “Hopefully we can build on this.”

Leading just 8-7 midway through the first quarter, the Tornado (10-3) scored the final 14 points of the stanza starting with Chris Mattingly’s fast-break layup, and ending with Tim Clark’s driving hoop just before the buzzer. In between, Norwich scored in a variety of ways, and all were high percentage looks at the basket.

The winless Golden Eagles scored four points early in the second quarter, and that preceded a 17-point spurt for NHS. Six different players scored during the second-quarter salvo, and Craig Berg connected on six points. By halftime, Norwich was up 29 points. “One thing we wanted to do was get off to an early lead,” Abbott said. “We knew Whitney Point was down this year, and we didn’t want them to hang around and gain some confidence at our expense.”

Vaughn Labor led four Norwich players in double figures scoring 15 points. Nate Foote had 13, Berg 12, and Patrick Coates 11.