Young, talented Norton basketball topples Ravenna in league finale
NORTON — The Ravens earned their spot on the championship banner at James L. Coll Gymnasium last week.
The Norton boys basketball team demonstrated Friday that it will compete for banners for many years to come, depriving Ravenna of an outright Metro Athletic Conference title with an impressive 63-49 win.
Despite having just a single senior (Elijah Carter) to honor on Senior Night, and despite the senior-dominated Ravens having an outright championship to play for, the young Panthers (11-11, 9-5) led nearly the entire night.
What drove Norton as it went on a 22-2 run over the final minutes of the first half and the first several minutes of the second?
"Really, Senior Night," Panthers freshman Buddy Willig said. "They brought out a good crowd. We wanted Elijah [Carter] to end on a good home win. We like Elijah and we just wanted to win for him."
Willig was especially spectacular, setting a tone with seven first-quarter points en route to a game-high 20 points.
"He is very shifty," Norton coach BJ Sanderson said. "If a guy is taking a charge, he's going to side-step, he's going to Euro. He knows how to play basketball, and he knows he's not a freshman anymore."
Well, Willig technically is a freshman, but he doesn't play like one, with the ninth-grader also unfurling a couple of highlight-reel assists Friday.
"I think everybody looks at him and just says he's a scorer," Sanderson said. "He's a fantastic passer."
Of course, Friday's MAC finale wasn't only about the Ravens and Panthers.
Norton's win also ensured a banner for Woodridge, leaving the Bulldogs and Ravens tied atop the MAC with identical 11-3 records.
And the night was about more than basketball, unfortunately, as the officials called the game with 1:48 left after a fan threw a water bottle that struck a Panthers player. Fortunately, that player was not injured.
Norton, Buddy Willig deliver impressive performance
Although the night ended on a sour note, that shouldn't take away from how well the Panthers played.
The Ravens (17-5, 11-3) held just two leads Friday — 3-2 on a 3-pointer by senior Justice Haven and 22-21 after embarking on an 8-0 run.
Willig ensured Ravenna's latter lead didn't last long, speeding into the lane and drawing the defense with him, then kicking out to fellow freshman Isaac Hunter for a 3-pointer from the left wing. Hunter made it a personal 5-0 run when he raced a defensive board down the court and got the call on a collision in the paint, sinking both free throws for a 26-22 lead.
Willig's older brother, junior Noah Willig, followed with a layup that was set up by a perfect pick, to take a six-point lead with a minute left in the half.
Norton capped its 12-2 run to end the first half with junior Zach Bowman's second 3-pointer of the night and Buddy Willig's brilliant driving finish, as the freshman sped around his drawn-out defender, then deftly finished around the help defender with four seconds remaining.
"We know we can play hard," Willig said. "We know we could get through that, and then once we get our momentum, we're unstoppable."
After ending the first half on an 12-2 run, the Panthers put the game away with 10 straight points to start the second, starting with another big play by the Willig brothers as Noah came out with a steal at the timeline and dished to Buddy, who hesitated to let his defender go by before laying it in.
Norton junior Luke Dobbins (12 points, eight rebounds) added a beautiful finish from the left side on a slash to the bucket, and Noah Willig followed by digging out a 50-50 ball in the paint and freeing himself from his defender with a nasty pivot en route to a layup to push the lead to 39-24.
"Our goal at halftime was we're trying to run," Sanderson said. "We're trying to get out and push the ball every chance we get, and I didn't want our kids to be stagnant and just play stall ball in the second half."
The Panthers capped the run with two free throws by Buddy Willig and a fast-break layup by junior Russell Duncan, expanding their lead to 19.
While Norton knocked down nearly half of its 3-point attempts (5 of 11) and shot 53.7% from the field, Ravenna struggled to find its way offensively, hitting just 36.5% of its shots.
The Panthers' stingy defense was especially apparent on their game-changing run as they held the Ravens to two points over the final three minutes and change of the first half, with Ravenna then missing its first nine shots of the second half.
"They say a lot of times a team takes on the persona of their head coach, and I can be feisty," Sanderson said. "That's how I played when I played and that's how I expect our kids to play."
Marcus Gibson snapped that skid with a 3-pointer with 3:05 left in the third and fellow Ravenna senior Bryce Moneypenny added a two 3-pointers, but the Ravens never could get closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
Senior Mason Ross led Ravenna with 13 points, joining Moneypenny (12) and fellow senior Justice Haven (10) in double figures.
This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Young, talented Norton basketball topples Ravenna in league finale
