Box Score NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Norwich made quite an impact during the opening round, taking down the University of Maine at Augusta, 96-65 for the first game of the 2014 Ed Hockenbury Classic on Saturday. Trinity (Conn.) College also made an impressive statement with a 77-43 victory over Rivier University for game two of the night.
Norwich and Trinity will meet at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday afternoon, immediately following the 1:00 p.m. consolation game featuring Rivier and Maine-Augusta.
Norwich 96, Maine-Augusta 65
Four Norwich players scored double digits with junior Alex Preckol (Westford, Mass.) scoring a team-high 17 points followed by senior Evan Tullar's (Chelsea, Vt.) 15 and freshman Ryan Fitgerald's (Winchester, Mass.) 14 points. Freshman Ryan Booth (Northfield, Vt.) contributed 10 points with five rebounds.
With the win against Maine-Augusta, the Cadets improve to 3-3 on the year, while the Moose drops to 2-8 overall.
Norwich trialed in the opening minutes before a jumper from Tullar and Preckol, followed by a 3-pointer from Booth sparked a 7-0 run to give the Cadets the 12-10 lead and the squad never looked back. Tullar would score 13 of his points in the first half alone as the Cadets shot an impressive 65.5 percent from the field, hitting 5-of-7 (71.4 percent) from beyond the arc and going 5-for-6 (83.3 percent) from the charity stripe.
After the break, Norwich continued to dominate on both ends of the court, scoring 23 points off of Augusta's turnovers. The deep bench contributed 56 points in the victory as the Cadets added 48 points in the second half to run away with the 96-65 win.
Junior forward Brandon Rogers (Turlock, Calif.) scored a team-high 37 points and eight rebounds for the Moose, while classmate Keith Chesley (Clinton, Maine) added 21 points on the night.
Trinity 77, Rivier 43
Junior forward Sahy Ajayi (Brooklyn, N.Y.) posted 16 points, five rebounds and three steals to lead Trinity College to a 77-43 victory over Rivier University on Saturday. Sophomore Chris Turnbull (Ridgewood, N.J.) added 15 points followed by junior Jacuqann Starks' (Hartford, Conn.) 13 points as the
With the win, the Bantams improve to 6-2 on the year, while the loss drops the Raiders at 2-5 overall.
Rivier was led by freshman guard Andre Ruff (Lowell, Mass.) with a game-high 10 points and eight rebounds, while David Lorden (Pepperell, Mass.) added nine points and three rebounds on the night. Senior Jack Nelson (Nashua, N.H.) and junior Brendon Moran (Peabody, Mass.) chipped in with six points apiece.
Trinity opened the first half with a 13-3 run, forcing Rivier to call an early timeout. However, that did not slow down the Bantams as they utilized a strong man-to-man coverage, forcing Rivier to turn the ball over 23 times and scoring 25 points off of the turnovers. Trinity's offensive power showed as the Bantams shot 31.4 percent from the field compared to Rivier's 18.2 percent in the first half as the score stood at 32-17 in favor of Trinity.
The second half showed no change as Trinity continued to put the ball into the basket, scoring 14-of-28 shots (50 percent) in the second half alone to run away for the 77-43 victory.
Rivier will take on Maine-Augusta in the consolation round at 1:00 p.m. while Trinity will look to defend its title tomorrow as the Bantams take on host Norwich in the championship round. Tip-off is slated for 3:00 p.m.
