Newfield 71 Norwich 65, Athens 59 Norwich 46

JOHNSON CITY- Norwich was back in action this past weekend as they competed in the Mark Woitach STOP DWI Tournament held in Johnson City. Unfortunately for the Purple Tornado the weekend was not kind to them as NHS suffered a pair of setbacks over their two game schedule, one to Newfield and the other to Athens High School from Pennsylvania.

In their tournament opener on Friday against Newfield, the Purple Tornado held a 51-47 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Newfield saved their best performance for the final quarter, outscoring the Purple 24-14. Six of those points came via the charity stripe. Newfield received 10 of their 22 attempts from the free throw line in the quarter, proving to be the pivotal difference in the game.

Norwich’s Keegan Franklin led the way with 18 points and a team high 15 rebounds. Jerell Stoke and Logan Ford each pitched in 14 points for the Tornado, and Torin Lawrence rounded out the Purple’s double-figure scoring with 10 points.

On Saturday, December 11, Norwich tipped off at 10:45 a.m. against Athens High School. NHS jumped out to a 17-13 lead at the conclusion of the first period. Torin Lawrence scored nine of the Tornado’s first 17 points to pace the offensive unit. But after that scorching hot first quarter offensive effort, the Norwich shooters got cold, scoring only five-points in the second stanza, as Athens took a 31-22 lead into the halftime break.

For Athens, their team took the momentum and never looked back as the trio of Mason Lister, JJ Babcock and Nalen Carling combined to score 42 points in the ball game- with 24 of those points coming throughout the course of the final two quarters.

A 15 point effort in the fourth quarter by Norwich’s Lawrence and Franklin to crawl back into the ballgame was admirable, but turned out unsuccessful as Athens won 59-46.

Torin Lawrence led NHS in scoring with 22 points, and Keegan Franklin scored 11 points.

Norwich (1-3) is back in action when they travel to the Chenango Forks Blue Devils on Tuesday, December 14 with game time set for 7:30 p.m.

Score by Quarters

Newfield: 15 9 19 17 - 71

Norwich: 14 16 20 8 - 65

Norwich (1-2): Torin Lawrence 10, Jerell Stokes 14, Colin Olds 1, Trent Wessels 2, Steven Dowdall 6, Keegan Franklin 18, Logan Ford 14. 20-74 FG, 20-35 FT – 65

Newfield (1-1): Z. Taylor 5, J. Hardison 19, B. Jackson 7, A. Jenney 10, D. Pawlewicz 16, G. Porter 14. 27-58 FG, 13-22 FT- 71

3-point goals: Norwich 5 (Stokes 3, Dowdall 2); Newfield 4 (Jackson 2, Hardison, Pawlewicz)

Score by Quarters

Athens: 13 18 14 17- 59

Norwich: 17 5 9 15 - 46

Athens: T. Brown 8, M. Lister 16, JJ. Babcock 16, N. Carling 10, T. Pritchard 7, C. Mitchell 2. 24 FG, 8-11 FT- 59

Norwich (1-3): T. Lawrence 22, J. Stokes 3, C. Olds 2, A. Genute 3, K. Franklin 11, W. Thornton 3, L. Ford 2. 17 FG, 5-8 FT - 46

3-point goals: Norwich 4 (Lawrence 2, Stokes, Genute); Athens 3 (Babcock 2, Lister)