Boston, Mass. – Senior guard Brian Ford (Bronx, N.Y.) led all scorers with 14 points and  pulled down six rebounds to help the Trinity College Bantams defeat the Nichols College Bison, 63-47, in the opening game of the 26th Annual University of Massachusetts-Boston Harbor Invitational this afternoon at the host's Clark Athletic Center.  The Bantams improve to 3-1, while the Bison fall to 1-4.  

Both teams will be back in action tomorrow as part of the Harbor Invitational with the Bantams taking on the winner of tonight's contest between Mass.-Boston and Framingham State in the championship game at 3:00 p.m., while the Bison take on the loser of that matchup in the consolation game at 1:00 p.m.

Trinity opened the game with an 8-0 lead on hot shooting from senior co-captain swingman Jared Pimm (Chelmsford, Mass.). Nichols cut the lead to four at 8-4, but the Bantams extended their lead to 13-6 with nine minutes left in the stanza before quickly increasing the lead again to 23-6 with a 10-0 run. A single free throw by Nichols' sophomore guard Justin Kuntz (Wallingford, Conn.) at 6:56 snapped the scoreless streak, but the Bison didn't get another field goal until 5:39 left in the session which ended a 7:05 scoreless drought.

After a small Nichols' run closed the gap 27-14, the Bantams opened up their biggest lead at the end of the half, 35-14, which sophomore guard Cameron Sutton (Queens, N.Y.) capped off with a free throw with less than a second on the clock to give Trinity a commanding advantage entering the locker room.

The Bison started the second half strong, cutting into the lead with constant backcourt pressure. A three-point field goal by junior forward Nick Brown (North Reading, Mass.) with 11:44 to play in the second half pulled Nichols to within single digits at 43-34, but Trinity immediately responded with an 8-0 run over the next 1:24 minutes of action, capped by a layup by senior co-captain forward Luke MacDougall (Baldwinsville, N.Y.) to make the score, 51-34, with 10:19 to play.  Nichols cut the Bantams lead to 13 points following a free throw by sophomore guard Steve Galgano (Ansonia, Conn.) with 3:15 remaining in the stanza but Trinity held the Bison scoreless from that point on to secure the 63-47 victory.

For Trinity, junior center Chris Applegate (High Point, N.C.) scored nine points and added nine rebounds and three steals for Trinity in just 20 minutes of action, while MacDougall was the only other Bantam in double figures with 12 points.  Nichols was paced offensively by sophomore forward Kyle Mascilak's (Sparta, N.J.) 12 points while Galgano chipped in with an eight point effort.