Basketball Game Preview: East Lyme Vikings vs. Norwich Free Academy Wildcats

East Lyme is 2-8 against Norwich Free Academy since March of 2021 but they'll have a chance to close the gap a little bit on Friday. The East Lyme Vikings will challenge the Norwich Free Academy Wildcats at 7:00 p.m. The teams are on pretty different trajectories at the moment (East Lyme has three straight victories, Norwich Free Academy has three straight losses), but none of that matters once you're on the court.

East Lyme will bounce into Friday's matchup after beating Fitch, who they had gone 2-7 against in their nine prior meetings. East Lyme secured a 67-63 W over Fitch on Friday.

Oliver Hibbard

Points

02/07/25 @ Fitch	29
02/04/25 vs Waterford	8
01/31/25 vs Woodstock Academy	18
01/29/25 @ St. Bernard	9
01/27/25 @ New London	23
+ 13 more games

Oliver Hibbard continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines, shooting 4-for-6 from beyond the arc and dropping a double-double with 29 points and 11 boards. With that strong performance, he is now averaging an impressive 15.3 points per game. Another player making a difference was Michael Timpano, who posted 12 points in addition to six rebounds and three steals.

Meanwhile, Norwich Free Academy came up short against New London on Saturday and fell 54-46. While losing is never fun, the Wildcats can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Connecticut basketball rankings (they are ranked 53rd, while the Whalers are ranked fourth).

The win got East Lyme back to even at 9-9. As for Norwich Free Academy, their defeat dropped their record down to 4-9.

East Lyme might still be hurting after the 62-41 loss they got from Norwich Free Academy when the teams last played back in January. Can East Lyme avenge their defeat or is history doomed to repeat itself? We'll find out soon enough.