Men's Basketball Upends Averett, 79-75

NEWPORT NEWS, VA - Christopher Newport's men's basketball team trailed 74-72 with 2:24 left in regulation and closed the game on a 7-1 run to upend Averett 79-75 in a USA South match-up Tuesday night.

Cory McDaniel put the Cougars on top, 74-72 with a clutch three-pointer. After Korey Lewis missed a short jumper in the lane, Theo Baker was left all alone on the weak side for an easy put-back to knot the score at 74-all.

McDaniel missed a shot at the other end and Baker was fouled after he grabbed the rebound. Baker went to the line and sank two free throws with 1:34 to play to put the Captains up two. After the ball was in-bounded, Andrew Boor was fouled and he went to the line and made the first, but missed the second attempt.

Donta Selden, the hero in the 2006 USA South championship win over the same Cougars, brought the ball up the floor and was fouled near mid-court. He also sank one of two and extended the Captains lead back to two points with 34 ticks remaining.

Leading by two with the shot clock off, the Cougars came down and Brandon Malone's driving lay-up was stuffed out of bounds by Korey Lewis. After an Averett timeout, an errant pass forced Ryan Frazier to go to the floor and as he did, he stepped on the out of bounds line, giving the ball back to CNU with three seconds to go. Selden was fouled after the inbounds pass and promptly sank both free throws for the final margin.

The game did not get off to a great start once again for CNU. Averett scored 21 of the first 26 points to lead 21-5 with 12:30 left in the first half. Every time the Captains would try and cut into the lead, the Cougars answered. The closest CNU would get in the opening half was eight points on Lewis' bucket in the paint with 1:08 left to cut the lead to 37-29. Frazier countered with a bucket with 13 ticks to go to put Averett up 10, 39-29 at the break.

CNU began the second half on a 13-6 run to cut the gap to three, 45-42 on Selden's three-pointer with 15:07 left. Averett countered with seven straight points to extend its lead back to 10. But it was the Captains 19-7 run capped by Selden's lay-up off his own miss with 7:37 to play that put CNU ahead for the first time, 61-59.

The Cougars however did not want to go quietly and quickly countered with a 7-4 run of their own to re-take the lead by three, 66-63, with 6:02 to play. CNU would outscore Averett 9-5 over the next three and a half minutes to lead 72-71, setting up the final stretch run.

For the game, AU was 30-of-72 (42%) from the field, 9-of-26 (35%) from behind the arc and just 6-of-12 from the charity stripe. The Captains were 27-of-57 (47%) from the floor, 6-of-14 (43%) on three-point attempts and 19-of-24 (79%) from the free throw line.

The Cougars were led by McDaniel's 15 points and seven rebounds. Frazier added 14 points and Damien Brown contributed 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Christopher Newport was led by Selden with 22 points. Baker added 17 points, Lewis had 12 and nine rebounds while Mark Blasingame added 11 points, 11 rebounds and seven swats. Davon Barton finished with 10 points and 10 assists.

Averett falls to 11-6 overall and 2-3 in the league. CNU improves to 11-6 overall and 3-1 in conference play. The Captains hit the road this weekend to take on Methodist on Saturday and Greensboro on Sunday. Both games will tip at 4 pm.

Box Score