BINGHAMTON – Despite the strong effort by the Norwich Purple Tornado, the Owego Indians – last year’s Section IV runner-up – snagged the win in the first round of the STOP DWI Winter Classic Division-I Bracket with a final of 66-58.

Norwich head coach Tom Collier believe that with the hard work his team put in together during the offseason, anything was possible for his squad.

The first quarter saw both teams playing well as the Purple Tornado were hanging with one of the two top teams in STAC. After scoring 22 points in the opening stanza, Norwich went into the second leading by five points.

The Tornado squad held onto the lead in the second for some time. Owego called a timeout regroup. “ When they called the time out, we were feeling good about ourselves,” said Collier.

The quick break in the action for the Indians provided the answer to take back the lead at the end of the half. Owego continued their run out of the intermission as they led by as many as 10 in the third.

Norwich wasn’t going to go down without a fight. In the fourth quarter, the Tornado were able to claw their way back into the game, tying it at 52 with three minutes left in the contest. “We knew our man-to-man defense was going to be the answer,” said Collier