Men's Basketball Captures Ed Hockenbury Classic Title

NORTHFIELD, Vt. -- The Bridgewater State University men's basketball team captured the 25th Annual Ed Hockenbury Classic title with an 81-62 championship game victory over host Norwich University on Sunday afternoon at Andrews Hall.

The Bears improve to 8-0 as they continue to add on to the program record for most wins to start a season. The Cadets fall to 6-2 with the setback.

Freshman guard Dante Kikuba (Framingham, Mass.) paced Bridgewater State with a career-high 20 points on 8 of 13 shooting to go along with five rebounds, four assists and a steal.

Junior guard Justin Parsons (Portsmouth, R.I.) added 14 points for the Bears. Parson shot 4-for-5 from the floor, including a pair of three-pointers, and knocked down 4 of 5 free throw attempts. BSU graduate center Emerson Halbleib (Carmel, Ind.) filled the stat sheet with 12 points, eight rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots and a steal.

Halbleib was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, while Kikuba was also selected to the All-Tournament Team.

Graduate forward and All-Tournament selection Donovan Lewis (Savannah, Ga.) led the way for Norwich with double-double totals of 17 points and 11 rebounds (five offensive) as well as four assists, a block and a pair of steals. Sophomore guard Kohlby Murray (Fair Haven, Vt.) checked in with 19 points and four boards, while junior guard Jalen Olivero (Holyoke, Mass.) notched 15 points, five boards, two assists and four steals.

The Bears used a 10-0 run in the first half to turn a one-point game (7-6) into a 17-6 lead. Four different players scored during the run including four points from Kikuba.  Bridgewater would get up by as many as 19 points (32-13) in the opening stanza and took a 34-24 lead into the intermission.

Parsons led all players with ten points in the first half. He knocked down 3 of 4 field goal attempts, including 2-for-3 from behind the arc, over the first 20 minutes and went 2-for-2 at the free throw line.

Layups by Kikuba, Halbleib and senior guard Precious Okoh (Brockton, Mass.) to open the second half extended the BSU advantage to 16 (40-24). The Cadets chipped away at the deficit and a three-pointer by Murray at the 10:21 mark made it a seven-point game (46-39).

Clinging to a seven-point lead (58-51) with under ten minutes left to play, the Bears got a big three-pointer from freshman forward Louis Jennings (Walpole, Mass.) followed by a driving layup by sophomore guard Alex Gonzalez (Peabody, Mass.) to push the advantage up to 12 (63-51). Bridgewater would maintain a double-digit lead the rest of the way as the Cadets connected on just 5 of 19 field goals over the last nine-plus minutes. The final score of 81-62 also marked the largest lead of the game.

The Bears shot 55% (33-60) from the floor and 37.5% (6-16) from three-point range. The Cadets connected on just 30% (24-80) of their field goals attempts including 5-for-29 (17.2% ) from behind the arc.

Bridgewater held the advantage in points in the paint (48-32) and fast break points (22-12), while Cadets held the edge in second chance points (11-5) due to a 16-5 offensive rebounding advantage.

In upcoming action, the Bears entertain Wheaton College on Thursday night at seven o'clock. The Cadets begin Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play on Wednesday night as they travel to Rivier University to take on the Raiders also at seven.