Men's Basketball Opens USA South Play With An 84-81 Overtime Win At Shenandoah

WINCHESTER, VA - Christopher Newport's men's basketball team opened conference play Wednesday night with an 84-81 overtime win on the road at Shenandoah.

The Captains dodged two attempts by the Hornets to win the game. One time came at the end of regulation when Mouktar Fawehinmi's three-point attempt bounced off the back of the rim. In the overtime session, Lenzie Adams had a chance to tie the score and force a second overtime, but his three-ball missed the mark giving the Captains the victory.

CNU led by as many as nine in the second half, 69-60, with 6:18 left in the game on Korey Lewis' jumper in the paint. SU would not go away as they scored 10 straight points to take its first lead since the first half, 70-69, on two free throws by Kendrick Carr with 4:51 to play.

After Shenandoah battled back to knot the score at 72-72, Christopher Newport again took a three-point lead with just over a minute to play in regulation, but Fawehinmi drained a three-pointer with 55 seconds to play in regulation to knot the score at 75-75, setting up Fawehinmi's attempt to win the game at the buzzer.

In the extra session, Shenandoah scored four of the first six points in overtime to lead 79-77 with 3:57 remaining. The Captains would counter by scoring four straight to re-take the lead 81-79 with 1:09 left on Riley's bucket. Adams tied the game at 81-all with 47 ticks to go, but Selden drained what proved to be the game-winner just 13 seconds later.

After Selden's bucket, the Hornets drove the length of the floor and had a chance to knot the score once again, but Adams missed a lay-up and CNU pulled down the rebound, made one of two at the line, setting up Adams' attempt to force a second overtime.

The game did not begin so well for Christopher Newport as CNU watched Shenandoah score the first 12 points of the game. The Captains countered with a 21-9 run to tie the score at 21 a piece and CNU took its first lead, 27-25, with 6:53 to play in the opening stanza. CNU's largest lead in the first half was six several times.

For the game, Christopher Newport shot 35-of-57 (61%) from the floor, including making four of its five shots in the extra session. The Captains were 2-of-4 from long range and 12-of-18 (67%) from the stripe. The Hornets finished 33-of-91 (36%) from the field, 6-of-26 (23%) from long range, but what troubled Shenandoah the most was its free throw shooting. SU shoots 68% from the line for the year, but finished just 9-of-21 (42%) from the line.

CNU out-scored the Hornets in the paint, 50-42. But Shenandoah was the beneficiary of 31 second chance points as they finished with 31 offensive rebounds.

Jeremiah Lawrence led all scorers with 27 points and 18 rebounds for Shenandoah. Fawehinmi added 19 points and Adams 13.

Lewis and Riley combined to shoot 21-of-28 from the field. Lewis led CNU with 24 points while Riley tied his career-high with 22 points. Selden finished with 15 as five of his total came in the extra session. Davon Barton contributed another double-double as the sophomore totaled 11 points and 10 assists.

Shenandoah falls to 6-6 overall and 0-1 in conference play. CNU improves to 9-4 overall and 1-0 in the USA South and rides a four-game winning streak into Saturday's final non-conference tilt as they host Piedmont (GA) at 7 pm.

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