Northfield, Vt. - Junior Courtney Erickson (Everett, Mass.) and sophomore Peace Kabari (Manchester, N.H.) scored 14 points apiece to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 74-54 win over the University of Maine-Fort Kent Bengals in the opening round of the Ed Hockenbury Women's Basketball Classic at Norwich University this evening.  Trinity, the two-time, defending Hockenbury Champions, improves to 5-0 for the first time since starting 11-0 in 2008-09, and will face the host Norwich Cadets in the finals tomorrow at 3 p.m.  The Bengals wiil play Bay Path College, which lost to the Cadets earlier today, 73-30, in the consolation game tomorrow at 1 p.m.  The Bantams defeated Norwich, 56-50, in last year's Hockenbury Finals and, 65-61, in the finals in 2015-16.

Trinity led wire-to-wire, scoring the game's first nine points on its way to a 16-6 first-quarter lead.  Kabari started the scoring on a put-back, immediately made another layup and scored three more times on free throws to account for seven of the nine points over the game's first 4:08.  Erickson made a traditional three-point play to put the Bantams ahead, 15-2, with 2:29 left in the opening stanza, and Trinity maintained a double-digit lead into the third period before a trey by Bengal junior guard Alex Sanchez-Moral (Martinez, Calif.) made the score, 31-22, 6:24 remaining before the final break.  Trinity senior tri-captain guard Aubree Udell (Chester, N.J.) answered quickly with one of her four long balls in eight attempts to push the lead back up to 34-22 moments later, and the Bantams led by as many as 20 points at 42-22 on a jumper by sophomore guard Meghan Lewis (Demarest, N.J.) before settling for a 47-34 advantage after three quarters.  Trinity maintained a comfortable lead over the final 10 minutes.  

Udell joined Erickson, the 2016 Hockenbury Tournament MVP, and Kabari in double figures in scoring for the Bantams with 12 points on her four three-pointers, and added five rebounds and four assists.  Kabari pulled down a game-high nine rebounds, while Erickson and junior guard Erica Junquet (Monroe, N.J.) had seven boards each, and junior forward Erin Cunningham (Wilton, Conn.) added six rebounds, as the Bantam dominated the glass with a 44-to-16 advantage.  Lewis highlighted the bench production for Trinity with eight points, five rebounds, and three steals.  Maine-Fort Kent sophomore guard Savana Jankowski (Cleveland, Ohio) poured in a game-high 15 points, while junior guard Bianca Gutierrez (Indio, Calif.) notched 11 points and four assists, and sophomore center Tate Dolley (Machias, Maine) scored 10 points and grabbed a team-high four rebounds.