Men win Hockenbury Trophy

Men's basketball starts its season 5-1 for the first time in recent history.

The team brought home the first win of the season in its 76-64 non-conference opening game against University of Massachusetts-Boston at Clark Athletic Center on Tuesday, Nov. 11.

According to Jaren Jeffcoat, 22, a junior communications major from Dallas, Texas, UMass-Boston is a young team with many new players. "We didn't really have any expectations, we just knew we had to get the win yesterday," Jeffcoat said.

UMass-Boston outscored Norwich during the first two quarters, with a 36-29 lead going into the second half.

"They were running a pseudo 1-3-1 half court pressure," Jeffcoat said. And Norwich realized it needed to change its offense to compensate for the tight defense U-Mass provided.

"We increased our tempo and didn't give them a chance to set up their defense," Jeffcoat said. "We also ran a match-up zone on defense to keep our pressure tight."

Norwich dominated the second half, more than doubling its score from the first half to regain the lead and win the game.

The team is now focused and was looking forward to its tournament in Plattsburg, N.Y., on Nov. 21, where they competed in the Cardinal Classic.

The upcoming season looks promising to Jeffcoat.

"We have a lot of new talent, a lot of young guys coming in, but we also have strength from our returning upperclassmen. Of our four leading scorers from last year, we have three returning," Jeffcoat said.

"Our team goal is to win the National Championship," Jeffcoat said. As for his personal goals, he'd like "to average double points and rebounds," as well as "shoot 45 percent from the field at each game."

Jeffcoat is on his way to accomplishing his goals as he earned 15 points and 11 rebounds against UMass-Boston.

And in last weekend's game, according to the Norwich Web site, he scored a team-high 20 points and pulled down a team-best nine rebounds as the team defeated Wesleyan University, 73-65, to capture the Ed Hockenbury Classic title. Teammate and senior F Israel Guardado chipped in 14 points and eight rebounds.