Week two produced an early game of the year contender as Class B No. 3 Norris outlasted Class C1 No. 3 Wahoo in a 79-74 thriller Tuesday night.
Story of the Game
Wahoo built a 10-point lead early in the second quarter, but the Titans ripped off a 15-3 run including eight points from freshman Evan Greenfield to jump ahead 34-32.
Norris took a 41-37 lead into halftime, but Wahoo rallied to take a 60-58 lead at the end of three. Senior Marcus Glock scored 13 points in the quarter and assisted two Keegan Brigham 3s, accounting for 19 of the team’s 23 points in the period.
Wahoo stretched its lead to seven early in the fourth before the Titans rallied to take a 73-71 lead when Greenfield rebounded a missed Titan free throw and passed out to Chris Garner Jr., who swung it to Josh Bornschlegl for a 3. Glock tied it up on the other end with a pair of free throws at the 1:45 mark.
The Titans came up empty on their first shot but earned a second-chance opportunity and Bornschlegl made it count with a tough bucket inside. Glock drew another foul with 48.3 left but split the free throws. Norris ran the clock down until sophomore Alec Small got in the paint late in the possession and pump-faked his defender into the air, drawing a foul and hitting both free throws to make it a three-point game with 18.8 to play.
Wahoo ran a play to get Glock a 3, but it resulted in a tough look that didn’t fall and Greenfield sank two free throws with 3.9 to go to seal the victory.
Norris’s edge in 3-point shooting (11-of-21 compared to 6-of-19) was enough to overcome Wahoo’s advantage inside the arc and from the foul line.
Coach Speak
“It’s one of the better games I’ve been a part of, just two really good teams offensively getting up and down,” Norris coach Jimmy Motz said. “Marcus is really good; he’s going to be a good player at the next level. We were just trying to simply wear him down and make him earn everything he got. I think he had 35 on 22 shots, which is pretty efficient. But I liked our balance offensively tonight; I think we had six guys with nine or more points. We made a couple plays down the stretch — Josh’s 3 was big off the offensive rebound, we got the stop we had to, Alec made a nice play to get to the line and Evan made the two free throws late to end it. Just a lot of good things; I’m super proud of the guys.”
Standout Performers
Junior Barret Boesiger went bucket-for-bucket with Glock in the first quarter to get the Titans going early, scoring 10 of his team-high 19 points in the first quarter. He shot 5-of-11 from 3 in the game. Sophomore Chris Garner Jr. added 14 points on 50% shooting, seven rebounds and three assists and was a beast on the offensive glass where six of his caroms came.
However, it was Bornschlegl and Greenfield who put the team on their backs in the fourth quarter.
Bornschlegl, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, missed all four of his shots and both of his free throws in the first half. He didn’t miss again, however, getting on the board in the third quarter then scoring eight in the fourth with a pair of 3s and the go-ahead bucket inside. He added a team-high eight rebounds and dished out four assists.
“He didn’t score the first half but kept playing,” Motz said. “He had a bad turnover there but the great thing about tonight is he responded, came back, made a few plays and played more confidently the last five, six minutes, which was huge. We’re going to need guys like that. I think we’ve got a little bit more balanced this year compared to a year ago. It doesn’t have to fall on Barret or Junior’s shoulders every night. We’ve got a nice piece there with Evan coming off the bench right now, Small played really well offensively tonight, Macoy [Folkerts] off the bench gives us something. We just have a lot of different guys that can make things happen.”
Greenfield had his coming-out party on Tuesday. He scored four points in the opener, followed with nine in game two and stepped it up again with 16 against one of the best teams Norris will see all season.
Greenfield shot 6-of-7 from the field including 2-of-2 from deep and was 2-for-2 from the line in the clutch. He added six rebounds, three assists, two steals and a highlight-reel block while spending a lot of time guarding Wahoo’s best player in Glock. He displayed skilled shot-making inside and out, made some terrific passes against Wahoo’s 1-3-1 and showed some length and athleticism defensively.
“He’s worked his way up in practice,” Motz said. “He’s practiced well. We’re trying to rep him as much as we can early on and he’s hopefully going to be a kid that just continues to get better because we’re going to need him and his versatility down the stretch.”
Small, a sophomore, was the other primary defender on Glock and added nine points, six rebounds and six assists. Folkerts, also a sophomore, scored nine points off the bench on3-of-3 from the field with two triples and 1-of-2 from the foul line.
Glock, the 6-foot-4 senior committed to Division-II power Northwest Missouri State, poured in a game-high 35 points, improving his scoring average to 33.7 three games into the season. The 3-ball didn’t fall for him like it did in the first two games (2-of-9 after a 12-for-19 start to the season), but he made up for it by getting to the line consistently, shooting 11-of-13, and was 9-for-13 inside the arc as well. He’s a tough-shot maker who will be one of the state’s leading scorers all year.
Dylan Simons, a 6-foot-4 junior, stuffed the state sheet, finishing with 14 points, six blocks, five rebounds and five assists. He made some phenomenal defensive plays with good hand-eye coordination and displayed a deft touch and good body control around the basket. Cody Hesser, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, also did a great job of getting to the rim, shooting 6-of-7 from the field for his 12 points.
