NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – No. 12 Christopher Newport University opened up the Captains Shootout Wednesday with an 87-60 men's basketball victory over Shenandoah University.
Â
Playing the opening game of the revised, three-team tournament, CNU (11-2) led wire-to-wire in downing the Hornets (2-8).
Â
IN BRIEF
The Captains scored the game's initial bucket 11 seconds in and never looked back in winning its 52
nd contest in the series between the longtime rivals. Christopher Newport shot 19 of 40 (48 percent) in both halves as it scored 44 points in the first and 43 in the second.
Â
Trailing by 20, 40-20 with 6:16 left, Shenandoah outscored its hosts 10-4 to complete the first half and head into the locker room down 14, 44-30.
Noah Adams, who finished with seven points, had five of the Hornets points during this half-ending run with leading scorer
Jaylen Williams (17 points) adding three.
Â
SU was able to keep the margin relatively close through the first media timeout of the second half before seeing the Captains score 11 of the game's next 16 points to push the margin back back to 21 points by the 10:53 mark.
Â
CNU did not allow its lead to shrink below 17 points the rest of the way and expanded it out to 29 points before two
Matt Simmons free throws with one minute left closed the book on the day's scoring.
Â
In addition to Williams' 17 points,
Davion Roberts had 13 points with all but two of those points coming in the second half.
Â
Christopher Newport shot 48 percent (38 of 80) to 40 percent (23 of 58) for the Hornets and had a 48-32 advantage on the boards. The Captains outscored SU 50-22 in the paint and had 26 points off of 18 Shenandoah turnovers.
Â
Williams, with nine boards, just missed a double-double.
Â
BY THE NUMBERS
Shooting
CNU: 38 of 80 (48 percent)
SU: 23 of 58 (40 percent)
Â
Rebounds
CNU: 48
SU: 32
Â
Leading Scorers:
CNU: Jason Aigner 15, Ty Henderson 15
SU:
Jaylen Williams 17,
Davion Roberts 13
Â
UP NEXT
Shenandoah completes tournament play with a 2 p.m. game versus Southern Virginia Thursday afternoon.
Â
###
Â
