Congratulations to the Norwich Purple Tornado boys’ basketball seniors. Pictured from L to R: Jerome Palen, Colin Olds, Carmello Ithier, Jacob Morris, Jackson Sastri, and Wyatt Thornton. (Photo by Morgan Golliver)

NORWICH – Coming off a close win against Windsor, the Norwich Purple Tornado boys’ basketball team returned home for the final time this regular season to face Oneonta. Prior to tip-off, Norwich honored its six seniors. Congratulations to Jackson Sastri, Jacob Morris, Colin Olds, Jerome Palen, Carmello Ithier, and Wyatt Thornton.

Norwich’s special night was spoiled by their rivals as they fell in the final minutes 48-42. With this win, Oneonta clinches the STAC East division.

Norwich fought hard from being down the entire game, but couldn’t control themselves to find a way to take the lead, even when they were so close to coming back. Oneonta showed their strengths early on, which put Norwich at a stand still as they struggled to move inside the paint and were unable to finish and follow through with their shots with the game on the line. Norwich had their best chances in the third and entered the fourth quarter, only down by six points.

Steven Dowdall and Jacob Morris fought hard to end the game on a strong note with hitting three’s, but they sent Oneonta’s leading scorer, Brady Carr, to the free-throw line in the final moments of the game. He was consistent at the line and finished five-for-nine. Dowdall also matched up against Carr on defense and tried to stop him, but Carr was able to move past and find room most of the time.

Dowdall found his rhythm offensively posting 22 points, including three three-pointers and scoring nine of the team’s 11 points in the third quarter. Colin Olds led the seniors with eight points, all in the first half. Graham Burton added four points as Mitchell Collins’ three points put Norwich closer in the end, where they were only down one point for a minute. Jacob Morris also finished with three points as Zak Myers added two in the loss.

Norwich (8-8) heads to Sus Valley on Friday at 7:15 p.m.

Scores by quarter:

ON 15 11 8 14–48

NO 8 9 11 14–42

ON: Brady Carr 28, Makya Morrison 9, Britten Zeh 7, Maddox Imperato 4.

NO: Steven Dowdall 22, Colin Olds 8, Graham Burton 4, Mitchell Collins 3, Jacob Morris 3, Zak Myers 2.

Three-pointers: ON 4 (Carr 3, Zeh); NO 4 (Dowdall 3, Morris).