NORWICH – Sophomore guard Oliva Schiraldi’s three point shot was so hot, steam looked cool.

Schiraldi sunk an impressive seven of her team’s 11 trifectas on her way to a game and career high 34 points.

Schiraldi’s impressive marksmanship was a large part of the dynamic Tornado offensive attack that defeated the Utica Notre Dame Jugglers 88-53 on Thursday night at Jack Jones gymnasium.

Purple Tornado senior Emily Evans along with Schiraldi each scored 14 points in the opening half of basketball to give the Tornado an early 43-25 advantage.

In the second-half, Schiraldi had her way with the Juggler defense- sinking eight more field goals with three of those coming from beyond the arc for 20 points in the second half.

“Everybody on our team knows that she (Olivia) is capable of everything she did. She can make open threes and she can get downhill to the rim, she is quick and she is athletic” said Norwich Head Coach Josh Bennett on the sophomore’s offensive outpouring, adding, “For her to string it all together, she is just very confident right now”

A key part of the NHS offense was the distribution by senior point guard MacKenzie Hess- who without hesitation routinely found open teammates for clean looks at the iron. Senior forward Emily Evans and senior guard Margaret Dougher, benefited from Hess’ court vision and scored 22 and 13 points respectively for the Tornado in the victory.

“We scored well getting downhill which was really important for us, and then obviously when we throw it out we have a lot of kids that can shoot the ball” said Norwich Head Coach Josh Bennett on his team’s offensive output.

Hayley Hefferman led the Utica Notre Dame Jugglers in scoring with 18 points. Makayla Thomas scored 14 points and eighth grader Ellas Trinkaus scored in double-figures with 10 points in the Juggler’s setback.

“They (Utica) are a good team- they’ve played very strong against some very good teams” said Norwich’s Bennett of the Jugglers, adding that he was ““Very, very happy that we (Norwich) were able to bounce back from the game on Tuesday (against Elmira).”

The confidence boost of the Purple’s performance to bounce back from tough back-to-back games will prove them well further down the road this season with Bennett adding “The biggest confidence boost for us is we can come through a double overtime game and be that crisp offensively.”

With the victory, the Purple Tornado (3-1) completed their first in a series of four total scheduled Section III games with opponents West Genesee, Rome Free Academy and New Hartford still on the docket. Notably, Rome Free Academy is ranked 29th in Class AA and New Hartford is ranked 10th in Class A girls basketball so far this season.

Norwich is back in action on Tuesday December 28th when they travel to Camillus, NY to take on the West Genesee Wildcats with tip-off slated for 12:30pm.

Score by Quarters

Utica: 8 17 10 18 - 53

Norwich: 18 23 26 21-88

Norwich (3-1): Maddy Morris 8, Olivia Schiraldi 34, Emily Evans 22, Margaret Dougher 13, Julie Turner 0, Cameron VanHouten 6, MacKenzie Hess 5, Julia Llewellyn 0. 35 FG, 7-9 FT – 88

Utica (5-3): Alexa Durso 0, Hayler Hefferson 18, Makayla Thomas 14, Sydney Sehring 5, Vita Waters 2, Amanie Jadwick 4, Ella Trinkaus 10. 20 FG 6-6 FT- 53

3-point goals: Norwich 11 (Schiraldi 7, Dougher 2, Evans, Hess); Utica 7 (Hefferson 4, Thomas 2, Sehring).