Impressive Norris dominates district competition, secures fourth straight trip to state tournament
The Titans defeated their two district foes by a combined total of 101 points to earn a fourth straight trip to the state tournament
The Norris boys are heading back to the Class B state tournament for the fourth straight season, and sixth time in seven attempts this decade.
In some of those years, the Titans' path to Lincoln was treacherous, filled with nail-biters or buzzer-beaters just to get into the final eight. Not this year. Norris (22-2) has obliterated almost every team in its path this season, and there's no better example of their excellence than in their home district tournament this week: the Titans, the top-seeded team in the district, blew out #5 Lincoln Northwest (5-18) 87-47 and #2 Gross Catholic (15-10) 86-25 and will head to Lincoln as one of Class B's unquestioned favorites.
Everything about this Norris team has been impressive this season, and everything that the Titans do well was exemplified in the two games this week. Norris typically scores 76 per game and allows 47 - they crushed both of those averages this week. The Titans came into the week having outscored their opponents by more than 600 points - they are plus 101 over their opposition this week.
They share the ball extremely well (20 assists per game) and take the ball away extremely well (13 steals per game), and their scoring is extremely balanced: Norris typically sees four players average double figures in scoring, and four Titans scored ten or more in the two games this week, and it was a different group of four that led the way this week (Macoy Folkerts, Evan Greenfield, Shane Holen and Alec Small against LNW; Holen, Greenfield, Chris Garner Jr. and Cooper Rice against Gross).
Head coach Jimmy Motz said after Monday's district final that this is about as well as his team has played all season, and at this stage that's impossible to dispute. The Titans will enter next week's state tournament as the #2 seed in Class B, trailing only Skutt Catholic - one of only two teams to defeat Norris this season, and the team that has ended Norris' season often over the last decade. This year, should the two meet again, it would be for a state title.