Men's Basketball holds on for three point win at Norwich

(Northfield, Vt.) The Rivier University Men's Basketball team traveled up to Northfield, Vermont and came away with a thrilling 64-61 victory over Norwich University in a Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) matchup on Wednesday night.

The win pushes the Raiders to 3-8 in the league and 3-15 on the year, while Norwich falls to 1-9 in conference play and 4-13 overall.

Four players scored in double digits for the Raiders with senior forward Edward Soucie (South Ryegate, Vt.) putting up a team-high 14 points and four rebounds. Senior Anthony Simmons (Stamford, Conn.) and junior Victor Davila (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico) both scored 13 points each with Davila picking up four steals in the win. Junior forward Kevin Francis (Cromwell, Conn.) rounded out the double digit scoring with 12 points, four rebounds and a pair of assists for Rivier.

Norwich sophomore guard Ryan Booth (Northfield, Vt.) led the Cadets in scoring with 13 points and three assists, while classmate Joe Bertrand (Saugus, Mass.) added 11 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.

After a commanding 10-3 run in the opening first half by the Raiders in the first two minutes of the opening tipoff. Norwich burned up a timeout and responded out of the break with a 20-5 run to take the lead, 23-15, at the 9:12 mark of the stanza.

The Raiders rallied from behind as both teams traded the lead six times and tied up the contest seven times in the half before the Cadets saw themselves trailing by eight at the half, 42-35.

Late in the second half, Booth made a layup in the paint on a bounce pass from classmate Ryan Fitzgerald (Winchester, Mass.) to knot the game at 50 points apiece at the 8:47 mark. Both teams would tie up the contest three more times in a span of seven minutes before Rivier's Soucie nailed a shot from beyond the arc to extend the Raiders' lead to three.

Both teams would make a pair of free throws as the Raiders held onto the 64-61 lead with five seconds remaining on the clock.

Norwich inbounded the ball before setting up the play with senior Alex Preckol (Westford, Mass.) pulling the trigger from the three point line to knot the game but the Cadets would watch the ball being swatted away in the air by Rivier's Francis as time expired, giving the Raiders the win.

Norwich will host Mount Ida College on Saturday, Jan. 30 for the 3 p.m. GNAC contest.