Congratulations to the Norwich girls’ basketball seniors. Pictured L to R: Julia Llewellyn, Julie Turner, Olivia Schiraldi, and senior cheerleader Sophie Carnachan. (Photo by Morgan Golliver)

NORWICH – Coming off two big wins against STAC league opponents, the Norwich Purple Tornado girls’ basketball team returned home on Thursday to take on STAC East champions Sus Valley. It was also senior night at Jack Jones Gymnasium, where Norwich honored its three basketball seniors and one senior cheerleader. Congratulations to Olivia Schiraldi, Julie Turner, Julia Llewellyn, and cheerleader Sophie Carnachan. Norwich fell on their special night 34-23 to a tough Sabers team with a full crowd cheering on both teams.

Norwich had control of this game, which at one point in the third quarter, they were only down by one. However, both teams got into foul troubles early on, which only put Norwich at a stand still because of past struggles at the line this season. It was a defensive battle throughout the entire contest, where Sus Valley showed their strengths underneath the basket with succeeding in rebounding.

Norwich showed toughness back and collected the ball, but found themselves unable to finish. The Purple Tornado were held to single-digits all night. Josey Ryan and Emma Urgo found movement, where they were able to get inside and straight-through defenders to score. Ryan led the team with 10 points with two three’s as Urgo finished with nine points with five of the team’s points in the third quarter. Bella Dilorio added three and Julie Turner led the seniors with one point.

Norwich (9-7) complete the regular season schedule with two road games, including tonight’s non-league match-up against Cortland at 6:45 p.m.

Scores by quarter:

SV 5 11 12 6–34

NO 5 7 8 3—23

SV: Aida MacNamee 7, Laci Lasicki 5, Ella Kariam 5, Julia Clarke 4, Norah Schneider 3, Heidi Brusso 3, Hayle Warner 3, Amanat Dhillion 3, Addison Rosenkrans 1.

NO: Josey Ryan 10, Emma Urgo 9, Bella Dilorio 3, Julie Turner 1.

Three-pointers: SV 4 (Lasicki, Schneider, Brusso, Warner); NO 2 (J Ryan 2).