NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich men's basketball team opened the 2019 Ed Hockenbury Classic beating the Moose 88-64 victory over University of Maine at Augusta at Andrews Gym on Saturday afternoon.
Norwich (2-6) led from wire-to-wire and held its largest lead near the conclusion of the game. The Cadets started the game on a 5-1 run capped by a three-pointer from freshman forward Jaydon Cousin (Savannah, Ga.). The hosts extended their lead to 17-7 at the 12:59 mark on the heels of a layup by Cousin.
Maine-Augusta (3-7) made a fierce comeback outscoring the Cadets 12-4 over the next two and a half minutes to cut the lead to 21-19 in favor of Norwich. After the teams traded baskets over the next few minutes, the hosts scored 12-straight points to generate a 37-23 lead. The freshmen left their mark during the run as Cousin scored half of the points while guard Benjamin Mitchell (Pooler, Ga.) collected the other half. That would help send the Cadets into halftime with a 41-29 lead.
A triple by the UMA's Chris Govan cut the lead to single digits at 52-43 at the 13:18 mark, but that was as close as the Moose would come as the hosts used excellent ball movement to get open looks down the stretch en route to victory.
Norwich shot 47.8 percent from the floor for the game while holding the Moose to under 30 percent. The Cadets won the battle of the boards, outrebounding the visitors 55-47 and registering 18 assists on 33 made baskets.
Israel Brown scored 21 points for the Moose while Brian McPerson tallied 10 points off the bench. Elijah Smith led the team with 9 rebounds and added 9 points and four steals.
In the second game of the evening, Trinity (Conn.) outscored Dean 34-16 in the paint and notched 24 points off second-chance opportunities to cruise to an 88-67 victory in a hard-fought and up-tempo matchup. The Bantams had four scorers in double-figure points with Colin Donovan leading the way with 26 points. The Bulldogs also had four players notch double-digit points as Traijan Powell emerged as the team leader with 15 points.