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Norwood takes third in Class 2

Pirates complete rally for win over North Andrew

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For the second day in a row at state, the Norwood Pirates dug themselves a double-digit hole in the first half, this time against North Andrew in the Class 2 battle for third place.

The Cardinals had a 9-0 run to open up an 11-point lead in the opening quarter.

Fortunately, Norwood was able to complete their comeback this time around.

Their defense held North Andrew to 11 points or less in the final three quarters as Norwood pulled away with a 23-11 run in the fourth for a 56-43 victory.

The win earned Norwood a third place plaque, giving them the best season in the history of the boys basketball program.

In their early comeback, Norwood’s defense picked up two steals as they had a 6-0 run to close the Cardinals’ gap to five. Jacob Sinning came off the bench to score four big points.

Their 5-0 run to start the second quarter tied the game. Gavin McGraw then hit a 3-pointer to give Norwood their first lead of the game at 19-17.

Justin Chadwell’s basket pushed the Pirates to a 10-1 run to open up a four point advantage.

Norwood’s Garrett Davault hit a 3-pointer near the end of the half and added a free throw to maintain the Pirates’ one point lead at the break.

North Andrew’s Tanner McDaniel had scored eight points in the first quarter before being held scoreless with just one shot from the field in the second.

In the third quarter, both teams struggled to get much going offensively as they combined to score just 16 points.

Norwood’s Justin Chadwell had missed his first four shots from the field in the quarter before scoring a basket for a three point edge.

This is when the Pirates implemented the ally-top into their offense for the rest of the game. They were able to convert the play five different times for 10 points in the final two quarters.

There would be six lead changes in the first four plus minutes in the fourth quarter when Davault drew a big charge at the 2:43 mark. It was 20 seconds later when Chadwell took an ally-oop pass from Davault for a basket and a three point lead.

McGraw added a jumper for a 48-43 edge. Jalen Drake then made two free throws to push the lead to seven with one minute left on the clock.

A technical foul and a separate foul with 48 seconds left led to three more Pirates’ points from the free throw line. Andrew Hooker scored the final point of the game to seal the 13-point win.

As a team, the Pirates made 19-of-42 shots from the field (45.2%) and were 16-of-24 (66.7%) from the free throw line. The Cardinals were 13-of-29 (44.8%) from the field and shot 14-of-20 from the charity stripe.

The Pirates’ defense forced 15 turnovers in the victory.

Davault led a Norwood team in scoring that had four players in double figures. The junior finished with a near quadruple-double of 18 points, eight assists, seven rebounds and seven steals. Chadwell tallied 12 points and three rebounds; McGraw had 10 points and two boards; Sinning scored 10 points, two rebounds, one assist, one block and one steal; Drake had four points, three rebounds and three assists; McGowan had one point, two rebounds and one steal; and Hooker scored one point;