Northfield, Vt. - Junior center George Papadeas (Athens, Greece) went eight-for-nine from the floor and finished with 15 points and five boards to help lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 70-57 victory over the Worcester State University Lancers in the opening round of the Ed Hockenbury Men's Basketball Tournament this evening at Norwich University.  Trinity improves to 5-3 and moves on to the championship round agains the host Norwich Cadets tomorrow at 3 p.m..  The Lancers fall to 0-7 and will play Maine Augusta at 1 p.m. tomorrow in the consolation game.

Sophomore guard Jaquann Starks (Hartford, Conn.) chipped in with 13 points for the Bantams while classmate Shay Ajayi (Brooklyn, N.Y.) added 11 points, five caroms and five steals, and junior forward Alex Conaway (New Haven, Conn.)  had eight points and a team-best eight rebounds.  Worcester State was propelled by senior Dane Jobst (Athol, Mass.) and junior Brendan Rios (Easthampton, Mass.) who both registered 15 points.  Jost pulled down a squad-high nine boards.

Trinity opened the contest with a 15-2 lead five minutes into the game. Worcester State responded with a 10-4 run to trail 19-12 near the halfway point of the stanza, but the Bantams stayed hot from the field and closed out the period with a 28-15 surge and the 47-28 advantage at the break.  Trinity made nearly half their shots from the field in the frame (18-for-39, 46 percent) as Papadeas, Ajayi and Starks combined for 27 of the 47 Bantam points.  Leading, 61-51, at the 6:01 mark, the Bantams pulled away by going on a 5-2 run over the next four minutes with two points at the free throw line by Starks and a trey by sophomore guard Rick Naylor (Sudbury, Vt.).