Boys’ Basketball

Norwich 69, Maine-Endwell 38

NORWICH – Maine-Endwell is a pretty fair club in the Southern Tier Athletic Conference. Norwich just made the Spartans look bad – again.

The Tornado clinched a tie for the STAC Central Division championship Friday night holding M-E under 40 points for the second straight game, and not allowing a double-figures scorer a second straight time as well. “I’m not an easy guy to impress, but the guys certainly impressed me Friday night,” said Norwich coach Mark Abbott. “We played fantastic at both ends of the court, and they had no answer for us.”

M-E’s main offensive threat, Joe Powell, who averages 17 points a game, had four in this latest outing against Norwich, and just 10 in two games versus a stingy Purple defense. Norwich switched defenses multiple times, and when it was in man-to-man mode, Corey Dietrich blanketed Powell. “Our goal was to play four-on-four, and take Powell out of the equation,” Abbott said. “We did a great job of doing that.”

David Carson scored a team-high 17 points, and put eight of those on the board in Norwich’s 18-9 first quarter. The lead grew to 20 by halftime, 37-17. Dietrich had six in the quarter, and the balanced scoring was plainly obvious. Carson led with 10, Dietrich had nine, Vaughn Labor eight, and Timmy Clark seven.