The Norwich Purple Tornado boys basketball team are your UV Holiday Tournament Champions. They held on to a 61-56 win over Sherburne-Earlville. (Photo by Morgan Golliver)

NEW BERLIN – The UV Holiday basketball tournament was just what the Norwich Purple Tornado needed as they picked up two big wins. One of those wins was a nail-biting 61-56 championship victory against neighboring Sherburne-Earlville. This was Norwich’s third win of the season.

Both teams had an early hot start. Like in the UV game, S-E’s offense had a strong first half, including a whopping 21 in the second quarter, but Norwich held a 35-28 lead at halftime. Norwich’s advantage came from nine points from Jerell Stokes, who knocked down two three’s, and Mitchell Collins and Steven Dowdall each added one of their own three’s in the first half.

It was a back and forth game in the second half, which ended up being so nerve-wracking for both sides in the final minute. With foul trouble on both teams, it depended on who could make foul shots, but everyone was consistent when it counted. So, it came down to the better defense.

S-E pressured Norwich to find a short deficit with less than 30 seconds to go. Dilen Maceda knocked down a three for the Marauders with just four seconds left to cut the Norwich lead to 59-56.

Norwich hit two crucial free-throws and had a big stop on defense to secure the victory.

Jerell Stokes, who was a fan-favorite for the UV student section all game, earned the MVP award with 17 points in the contest. Steven Dowdall also had 17 points and made the all-tournament team.

S-E’s DIlen Maceda, who excelled at the newly starting role, finished with 19 points, including three three-pointers while Rylan Sigman was behind him with 14 points. Both earned all-tournament honors.

UP NEXT:

Norwich (3-7) will be at Sus Valley on Wednesday, January 4 at 7:15 p.m.

S-E (3-7) will be at Clinton on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Both games will be broadcasted on the Mixlr app by Harry Graves.

Scores by Quarter:

NO 17 18 14 12—61

SE 7 21 13 15–56

NO: Jerell Stokes 17, Steven Dowdall 17, Mitchell Collins 15, Damien Kane 6, Zak Myers 4, Wyatt Thornton 2.

SE: Dilen Maceda 19, Rylan Sigman 14, Brayden O’Hara 11, Darren Miles 5, Aaron Key Jr. 3, Jack Rodman 3, Nick Hull 1.

Three-Pointers: NO 4 (Stokes 2, Dowdall, Collins); SE 4 (Maceda 3, O’Hara)