Box Score 

NORTHFIELD, Vt. - Chris Ruiz scored a team-high 20 points, and Brad Mader netted 17 points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds as Plattsburgh State beat Norwich, 76-67, in a non-conference men's basketball game Tuesday evening at Andrews Hall.

With the win, the Cardinals improve to 2-1 on the young season. The Cadets, meanwhile, fall to 0-3 on the year.

Norwich was led by sophomore guard Jaren Jeffcoat, who scored a game-high 24 points. Antonio Davis recorded his first career double-double with 11 points and a team-high 14 rebounds. The freshman forward also made three steals and blocked one shot. Senior guard Tim Fico added 13 points, while freshman forward Israel Guardado chipped in six.

The game see-sawed back and forth over the first eight minutes with Plattsburgh State holding a slim 13-12 lead at the 12:14 mark. The Cardinals took control of the game over the next four minutes, outscoring the Cadets 9-0 to take a 22-12 lead with 8:28 to play before halftime. Norwich cut its deficit to seven points with 1:11 to go in the half, but a Josh Bruno three-pointer just before the buzzer gave Plattsburgh State a 41-32 halftime lead.

Fico paced the Cadets in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 11 points and dishing out three assists. Ruiz led the Cardinals with 11 points in the first half, while Bruno added nine off the bench. Plattsburgh State shot 46.7 percent from the floor in the first half, while Norwich converted just 36.7 percent of its shots. The Cardinals outrebounded the Cadets, 23-13, in the first half.

Norwich scored the first five points of the second half as Jeffcoat nailed a three-pointer and then hit a jumper to trim the Plattsburgh State lead down to four points at 41-37. The Cardinals responded with an 8-1 spurt to build their lead back up to 11 points at 49-38 with 16:59 to play in the second half.

The Cadets were able to get to within seven points several times over the next seven minutes, and they trailed 59-52 with 9:27 on the clock. A 10-2 run by Plattsburgh State helped the Cardinals take their largest lead of the game at 69-54 at the 5:39 mark. Once again, the Cadets refused to go away, using a 10-2 run of their own to close to within 71-64 with 47 seconds to play. That was as close as Norwich would get, however, as Plattsburgh State held on for the nine-point victory.

For the game, Plattsburgh State made 42.6 percent of its shots, including 6-of-16 from three-point range. Norwich connected on just 32.3 percent of its field goals, and made 7-of-15 from behind the arc. The Cardinals outrebounded the Cadets, 49-33.

Norwich did good job of taking care of the basketball in this game, as the Cadets turned it over just 12 times on the night. The Cardinals, meanwhile, committed 17 turnovers in the contest.

Norwich returns to action this weekend (Nov. 21-22) when the Cadets travel to Rocky Mount, N.C., for a pair of games. NU will face North Carolina Wesleyan on Friday, before tangling with Methodist on Saturday.