FIRTH — A pair of losses last week had the Class B No. 7 Norris girls basketball team at its lowest point of the season.
The Titans were close to slumping further after two late turnovers gave No. 9 Blair a chance at forcing overtime Tuesday in an Eastern Midlands Conference Tournament semifinal game.
But Norris buckled down defensively, forcing a tough shot that missed at the buzzer, to earn a 41-38 win.
It was a near catastrophe for the Titans, who led by eight points to start the fourth quarter.
But a win is a win, and it was a much-needed one.
“The feeling of a win is the feeling of a win, no matter if it’s by 10 or three,” Norris coach Wally Johnson said. “We just have to build on it, because we had been struggling the last few games. We’ve just got to try and find our offensive identity.”
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Tuesday was just the third time Norris had scored more than 40 points since the calendar flipped to 2023. And despite a better performance on that end, inconsistencies remained.
The Titans scored just four points in the fourth quarter as Blair clawed back into the game, eventually having a chance to tie the score.
Fourth quarter aside, Johnson thought Tuesday’s win — and an encouraging second half in a loss to Bennington last Friday — could be the turning point.
“We shot the ball better tonight than we had over the past few weeks and we were more patient with the ball,” he said. “We are starving on offense. We used the Bennington game as a turning point because of the way we played in the second half.”
When the Norris offense needed a spark Tuesday, Grayson Piening came off the bench to provide it.
She scored all of her team-high nine points in the first half as Norris took a 22-17 halftime lead thanks to a 12-3 run.
“I feel like the second quarter showed who we are, like getting that old feeling back,” Piening said. “We worked hard in practice, watched some film, broke some stuff down and just got our basics back. That really showed tonight.”
With the postseason just a few weeks away, a win felt critical for Norris, which has a loaded schedule ahead. Five of its last seven games are against rated teams, including No. 2 Elkhorn North in the EMC championship Friday.
Johnson thinks Norris can get rolling again before the end of the regular season.
“We’ve got to build momentum,” he said. “It’s going to be our toughest stretch of the season. But we are going to use it to build our competitiveness so that when we get to the end of the season, we are used to that competition and are ready to perform.”
Beatrice teams traveling on Thursday
The higher seeds have prevailed in the first round of the Trailblazer Conference Tournament, so both Beatrice teams will be on the road on Thursday.
The Beatrice boys, the No. 3 seed in the tournament, will travel to second-seeded Platteview for a 6 p.m. semifinal game on Thursday. The winner will advance to Saturday's championship game against the winner of No. 1 seed Wahoo and No. 4 seed Malcolm.
Beatrice (8-5) has played Platteview (14-2) twice this season and lost 53-51 and 69-53.
The Beatrice girls are the No. 3 seed in the tournament and they will travel to second-seeded Malcolm for a 6 p.m. semifinal game on Thursday. The winner will advance to the championship on Saturday against the winner of No. 1 seed Wahoo and No. 5 seed Plattsmouth.
Beatrice (12-1) has played Malcolm (14-3) previously this season and they suffered their lone loss of the year 50-41.
Sunland hoops scores
Boys
NORRIS 57, WAVERLY 42
Norris 13 14 11 19 -- 57
Waverly 12 12 5 13 -- 42
Norris -- Klein 8, Bornschlegl 7, Boesiger 20, Garner 14, Behrends 3, Small 5
WILBER-CLATONIA 44, PALMYRA 42
Wilber-Clatonia 12 16 5 11 -- 44
Palmyra 11 16 6 9 -- 42
Wilber-Clatonia -- DNR
TRI COUNTY 68, THAYER CENTRAL 54
Thayer Central 14 11 11 18 -- 54
Tri County 15 15 19 19 -- 68
Tri County-- DNR
PAWNEE CITY 72, LEWISTON 52
Lewiston 12 11 12 17 -- 52
Pawnee City 27 17 16 12 -- 72
Lewiston-- DNR
Pawnee City -- Pierce 17, Menninga 3, Horst 4, Wilkinson 1, An Kling 27, At Kling 2, Farwell 18
FREEMAN 59, ELMWOOD-MURDOCK 45
Freeman 15 14 17 13 -- 59
Elmwood-Murdock 7 6 20 12 -- 45
Freeman-- DNR
FALLS CITY SH 42, SOUTHERN 30
Southern -- DNR
Girls
FAIRBURY 41, SANDY CREEK 27
Fairbury 7 2 20 12 -- 41
Sandy Creek 5 6 6 10 -- 27
Fairbury -- DNR
ELMWOOD-MURDOCK 43, FREEMAN 28
Freeman 4 9 8 7 -- 28
Elmwood-Murdock 19 5 9 10 -- 43
Freeman - DNR
FALLS CITY SH 55, SOUTHERN 23
Southern -- DNR
LEWISTON 68, PAWNEE CITY 16
Lewiston 9 18 29 12 -- 68
Pawnee City 4 2 8 2 -- 16
Lewiston - Anderson 2, K Sanders 23, Dekoning 1, Weyers 32, M Sanders 6, Janssen 3, Currie 1
Pawnee City - DNR
PALMYRA 36, WILBER-CLATONIA 24
Wilber-Clatonia -- DNR
THAYER CENTRAL 51, TRI COUNTY 33
Tri County -- DNR
MERIDIAN 52, HIGH PLAINS 22
Meridian 12 19 10 11 -- 52
High Plains 4 6 5 7 -- 22
Meridian -- Pribyl 2, Niederklein 3, Stewart 11, Rut 2, Filip 1, Hofstetter 8, Barnell 3, Ward 6, Sobotka 11, Dimas 5
