South Burlington — Ben Shungu scored 31 points, including the 1,000th of his career, and the Rice Memorial Green Knights rolled past the Essex Hornets 73-53 on Tuesday night on Bernie Cieplicki Court.

Needing 11 points coming into the night to reach the milestone Shungu took little time, getting his 1,000th point on a freethrow less than five minutes into the game. He finished the quarter with 13 as the Green Knights opened up a 22-11 first quarter lead. He added five second quarter points and teammate Elliott Nelson banged home eight as Rice opened a 43-26 halftime edge.

After Shungu’s three pointer pushed the lead to 20 early in the second half Essex mounted a 9-0 run to cut the margin to 11 at 46-35 midway in the third quarter, but the visitors would get no closer the rest of the way.

Nelson finished with 12 points and Alex Bond added nine for Rice. Freshman Reilly Smith tallied 15, Scott Lyon chipped in 11 and Eli DiGrande added 10 for the Hornets.
With the win Rice improves to 3-1. Essex is 2-4.