Evening Sun Report

Boys’ Basketball

Norwich 74, Johnson City 54

NORWICH – One night after a hard-fought road victory at Owego, the Purple Tornado – for three quarters – easily played its best and most consistent basketball of the season in coasting to a 20-point victory over the Wildcats Thursday evening.

“We did a lot of good things, and I was especially pleased with the offense,” said Norwich coach Mark Abbott. “We had great spacing and shot the ball with confidence.”

Norwich was particular effective in finding the open shooter in the first quarter, and in transition, had no trouble finishing on the fast break.

Josh Borfitz hit two three-pointers – the first and last three points of the opening stanza – and Corey Dietrich along with Casey Edwards canned three balls in between to stake Norwich to a 21-9 lead.

After JC scored the opening points of the second stanza, the Tornado went on a 10-0 run to create a 22-point bulge. Dietrich scored on two layups, Vaughn Labor and Christian Hotaling knocked down a pair of free throws, and Borfitz capped the spurt with another steal and layup.

“Defensively, we did a nice job mixing it up, and we kept them off balance most of the night,” Abbott said. “This (win) has to give us more confidence, especially coming off the tough win the night before. To come out with the energy we had was really good.”