Men's Basketball Wins Hockenbury Tournament Opener Over Norwich, 76-69

Northfield, VT --- Senior Frank Stephenson (Fall River, MA) poured in a career-best 28 points with six assists and five rebounds to help lead Worcester State to a 76-69 over Norwich in the first round of the Hockenbury Tournament hosted by the Cadets.

The Lancers (2-3) move to Sunday's championship at 3 PM and take on nationally ranked Williams, who sits at seventh in the latest D3hoops.com poll. Norwich (1-4) plays SUNY Purchase at 1 o'clock in the consolation.

Stephenson did his damage for the Lancers on a nine-for-15 line from the field that included a pair of three pointers as he canned every shot from the free throw line (eight-for-eight). Junior Robert Hunter (St. Louis, MO) registered 16 points and nine boards as sophomore Mike Gittens (Uncasville, CT) added 16 points.

Third-year Kyle Ferreria (Westport, MA/Diman Vocational) chipped in with eight points and four helpers for WSU.

Norwich was led by senior Antonio Davis (Albany, NY) who tallied team highs of 23 points and eight caroms and junior Josh Cabrera (Providence, RI) finished his evening with 19 points.

After two ties and one lead change in the early goings of the contest, the Cadets led by as many as 10 points with eight minutes (27-17) to go in the opening period before settling for the five point advantage at the intermission (39-35).

Worcester State would get as close as two points at the 2:30 mark, but then Norwich converted a trio of layups to go up 37-29, one minute later. Hunter would nail two free throws with 67 ticks left and then Stephenson fired a trey for the half-time score.

Coming out of the gate in the second period Norwich extended its lead to seven with 16:32 left (45-38), but then the Lancers would use a 15-3 run – with nine points by Stephenson in the outburst – to take a 53-48 edge over with 10:43 on the clock.

The next six minutes would see the score equalized five times and five lead changes before Stephenson and Hunter hit back-to-back jump shots to break a 64-64 game at the 4:22 mark.

Stephenson iced the game as he would hit six of his last six shots from the charity stripe to help seal the win for Worcester State.

The two squads were on fire from the floor for the contest as Worcester State ended the night with a 53 percent clip in the category (28-for-53) including a seven-for-14 line from beyond the arc (50 percent). WSU also made 66 percent of their shots in the second frame (16-for-24).

Likewise, the Cadets connected for a modest 46 percent of their shots (27-for-59), but were only seven-for-20 from three point land (35 percent).

14 of Norwich's 20 turnovers were swiped by the Lancers as they would hold a 31-20 advantage in points off of their opponent's miscues. In addition, the Blue and Gold had leads in points in the paint (36-34) and rebounds (32-28).

Davis scored his 1,000th career point in the setback for the Cadets.