Willimantic, Conn. - Five Bantams finished in double-digits to lead the Trinity College women's basketball team to a 75-67 victory over the Eastern Connecticut State Warriors on Saturday afternoon in the first game of the Eastern Connecticut State Tip-Off Tournament on opening day for Trinity. The 1-0 Bantams move on to tomorrow's 3 p.m. tournament championship game where they will face the Westfield State Owls, who won the other game of the evening. The Warriors, who earned an at-large bid to last season's NCAA Tournament, will face New Paltz State at 1 p.m.  

In a game they never trailed, the Bantams were led by junior Becky Reifler (Garden City, N.Y.) who tied a career-high with 17 points on 5-of-12 shooting, including a 4-for-8 day from beyond the arc, and tied a team-high, along with rookie Allie Morin (Westwood, Mass.), with four steals. Sophomore forward Peace Kabari (Manchester, N.H.) and junior guard Erica Junquet (Monroe, N.J.) both turned in 15 point performances while Kabari pulled down seven boards and added three steals and Junquet had six rebounds and a team-high three assists. Junior forward Courtney Erickson (Everett, Mass.) had the game's lone double-double with an 11 point, 11 rebound performance while classmate Erin Cunningham (Wilton, Conn.) also finished with 11 points and chipped in eight rebounds.

The Warriors were paced Lizzy Cretella (Cheshire, Conn.) who had 19 points and seven rebounds while Mya Villard (Cromwell, Conn.) finished with 17 points and seven boards and Sabrina LeMere (North Branford, Conn.) added 10 points and five assists off the bench. ECSU shot 48.1% from the floor but was plagued by 21 turnovers. Trinity won the battle on the boards, finishing with 43 to the Warriors' 33, and also went 8-for-19 as a team from three-point land. 

Trinity came out of the gates hot, opening up a 14-0 lead in the game's first eight minutes. The Warriors responded with their own run, a quick 8-4 stretch that cut Trinity's lead to 18-8 at the end of the first quarter. Eastern outscored Trinity in the second quarter, 16-11 to make it a 29-24 game at the half, four points off the bench from Morin and five combined points by Kabari and Cunningham kept Trinity's lead intact.

The Bantams blew things open with a 24-point third quarter, led by nine points from Reifler. Kabari and Erickson dominated the paint, combining for 14 points while Trinity forced five ECSU turnovers. The Warriors did come back to tie the game at 31-31 early in the third, however Trinity held strong and finished the frame on a 24-7 run to take a commanding 55-38 lead into the final quarter. Reifler scored six more points in the fourth quarter while Junquet went off for seven to lead the way down the stretch. Villard tried her best to pull the Warriors to within striking distance, dropping 11 points in the quarter, however ECSU could not overcome a stingy Bantam defense that closed out the eight-point victory. 

Trinity Head Coach Emily Garner (2nd season) was pleased with how the team came out in the season opener. "Our energy and toughness really carried us tonight," said Garner. "I'm extremely proud of our team's resiliency and maturity in weathering their runs, and in their commitment to executing our game plan. ECSU is a gritty team, and I think our fight and confidence down the stretch was the difference in the game."