WILLIMANTIC, CONN. – Peace Kabari had ten points, six rebounds, three steals and two assists in the final quarter as Trinity College erased a nine point deficit late in the third to win the Eastern Connecticut State University Tip-Off Tournament in its first appearance Sunday afternoon with an 88-77 victory over Westfield State University at Francis E. Geissler Gymnasium.
The only tournament team not to win its conference and compete in last year’s NCAA tournament (although the Bantams were 10-3 outside of their conference), Trinity (2-0) was able to slow somewhat Westfield State’s (2-1) high-octane offense which had averaged 97 points in its first two games this year, including 104 in Saturday night’s 16-point first-round victory over SUNY New Paltz.
Lucy Barrett and Kierra McCarthy were named to the All-Tournament team at the Eastern Connecticut Tip Off Tournament
New Paltz (1-1) captured the third-place game when Rachel Simon canned a tie-breaking three-point field goal with just under a minute left and Eastern (0-2) missed its final three shots in losing both of its tournament games for only the second time – first since 1993.
Trinity, which scored the first 14 points en route to a 75-67 first-round win over Eastern Saturday night, trailed by seven with ten minutes left to play against Westfield, but Kabari paced the fourth-quarter rally and joined teammate Courtney Erickson with a double-double. Kabari had 15 points and 13 rebounds and Erickson led both teams with 25 points and 14 rebounds and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding player. Kabari joined her on the all-tournament team from Trinity.
In the decisive fourth quarter, the Bantams exploded for 32 points after totaling only 30 combined in the second and third. With her team down by seven, Kabari was fouled while grabbing an offensive rebound and sank both free throws to make it 63-58. Kabari then stole the ball and scored to cut the gap to three, 63-60, and Erin Cunningham and Erica Junquet followed with inside buckets following a pair of Westfield misses to give Trinity the lead for good, 64-63 two minutes into the game. Westfield then failed on another three-point field goal (the Owls were 0-of-9 from long range in the quarter) and Kabari set up two Cunningham free throws with a steal that extended the lead to three, 66-63.
Westfield, which was 12-of-33 from three-point range Saturday, missed 28 of 34 from behind the arc and shot just 31.7 percent from the floor in the game. Trinity connected on 31 of 44 free throws, shot just under 50 percent from the floor, held a +11 margin in rebounding, and survived 25 turnovers (only two of those turnovers coming in the final quarter).
Cunningham added 12 points, four rebounds and two blocks for Trinity and Junquet ten points. Erickson and Kabari were 16-of-23 from the stripe in the game.
In two tournament games, Erickson had 36 points and 25 rebounds and shot 44.8 percent form the floor. Kabari added 30 points, 20 rebounds and seven assists and six steals.
Lucy Barrett and Kierra McCarthy represented Westfield on the all-tournament team. In two games, Barrett totaled 41 points and was 15-of-15 from the foul line and McCarthy had 27 points, 17 rebounds, six steals, and five assists.
Following its slow start Saturday, Eastern got out quickly against New Paltz, with all-tournament selection Lizzy Cretella hitting three straight buckets to spark the Warriors to a quick 11-5 lead. A 28-point second quarter pushed the Hawks in front by six at the half, but with the teams headed into the final quarter tied at 57-all, New Paltz scored nine points in a row to take a five-point, 73-68 lead with 3:30 remaining. Simon’s fifth three-pointer in ten attempts in the game with a little less than a minute left proved to be the winning points.
Limited to eight points and five rebounds in her team’s tournament opener, New Paltz’ Demi Herasme had a double-double against Eastern with 20 points and 12 rebounds. She was 9-of-11 from the floor. Simon had 19 points, six rebounds and four assists against Eastern, Marion Dietz 13 points and five rebounds and all-tournament selection Lindsay Bettke ten points and seven assists. In two games, Bettke had 36 points and nine assists for the Hawks.
Cretella led Eastern offensively for the second straight game with 20 points, eight rebounds and three steals, with Mya Villard adding 18 points and eight rebounds and Kelsey Santagata dropping in 17 point with six rebounds. Cretella amassed 39 points, 15 rebounds and four steals in two games, sinking half of her 30 field goal attempts. – Courtesy Eastern Connecticut Sports Info
