NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Julian Sanchez (Willimantic) came off the bench to lead four double-figure scorers with a game-high 21 points and the Eastern Connecticut State University men's basketball team committed a season-low nine turnovers as the Warriors won the Ed Hockenbury Classic with a 73-55 victory over host Norwich University Sunday afternoon at Andrews Gymnasium.
A winner of four straight, Eastern (7-1) won both of its tournament games by 18 points. The Warriors defeated Western New England University, 74-56, in Saturday night's first-round game while Norwich (3-6) advanced with a 60-50 win over the University of Maine at Fort Kent.
In the first game against Norwich in 37 years, Dominick Dao (Terrvyille) added 17 points, Jalen Hamblin (West Hartford) 15 points and ten rebounds and Ray Carter Springfield, MA) 11 points. Sanchez, Dao and Hamblin combined for 20-of-34 percent (58.8 percent) from the floor. Fifteen of Dao's points came on five three-point field goals in ten attempts.
The 6-foot-7 inch Hamblin was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player with two-game totals of 40 points and 19 rebounds with three assists, two blocks and two steals in 69 minutes. Hamblin shot 51.9 percent from the floor and was 10-of-13 from the foul line.
Sanchez joined Hamblin on the all-tournament team with two-game totals of 35 points, 16 rebounds, five assists and only one turnover in 55 minutes. He shot 63.6 percent from the floor and is shooting a team-leading 66.7 percent from the floor through eight games.
In the tournament, Hamblin, Sanchez and Dao combined on 39-of-70 shooting from the floor (55.7 percent), were 10-of-21 from distance and 16-of-23 from the stripe. They averaged a combined 34.7 points and 13.7 rebounds and totalled 13 assists, six steals and two blocked shots and recorded a combined total of only nine turnovers in a total of 188 minutes.
Eastern is off to its best start after eight games in eight years, when the 2017/18 squad went on to win a record 26 games (against four losses), its last outright Little East Conference regular-season title and LEC tournament championship and qualified for its last NCAA tournament.
Eastern hosts Penn College of Technology Monday, Dec. 29 at 5 p.m.in the opening round of its own Holiday Invitational at Geissler Gym. Wesleyan University meets Nichols College at 3 p.m. in the first first-round game. The tournament games will be Eastern's final non-conference ones before playing its final 15 games against LEC opponents.