Men's Basketball Powers Past Maryland Bible, 87-67, Captures CNU Invitational Title

NEWPORT NEWS, VA - Christopher Newport men's basketball team rolled to an 87-67 victory over Maryland Bible in the championship match of the CNU Invitational Saturday night at the Freeman Center.

This was the 14th championship in the past 21 years for the Captains. CNU is now 35-7 all-time in CNU Invitational games.

It looked as if the game was going to be close early when MBC took a quick 8-4 lead with 18:12 left in the first. The Captains, however, responded by going on a 33-12 run to lead 37-20 with 5:34 left in the first on Mark Blasingame's jumper. The 17-point lead would be the biggest CNU would experience in the first half, as they went into the locker room up, 43-26.

In the second, the Captains continued their hot shooting and began the half on a 22-9 run to lead by 30, 65-35, with 14:35 left in the game on a lay-up by Edward Riley.

CNU would lead by as many as 33 in the second stanza, 76-43, with 9:23 to go on a jumper by Davon Barton. Head Coach C.J. Woollum was able to get all 14 of his players into tonight's contest.

Maryland Bible was 28-of-71 (39%) from the floor for the game, 2-of-13 (15%) from behind the arc and 9-of-12 (75%) from the free throw line. The Captains finished 37-of-59 (63%) from the field, just 4-of-13 (31%) from long range and 9-of-10 from the line.

MBC was led by Sam Plater's 20 points. Tim Squire added 19 points and Tyler Yanosky finished with 16 points and nine boards.

Christopher Newport was led by the tournament's Most Valuable Player, Davon Barton, as he finished with back-to-back double-doubles. Barton finished with 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting and 11 assists. Korey Lewis finished with 19 points, 15 in the first half, and added six boards. Blasingame contributed 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Squire, Donta Selden, Lewis, and Barton were joined on the All-Tournament squad by Daniel Rivera of Southern Virginia and Luke Linz of Concordia (MN). Southern Virginia defeated Concordia in the third place game, 87-80.

MBC falls to 6-3 on the year while CNU evens its record up at 2-2. The Captains return to action Tuesday as they host 15th-ranked Randolph-Macon with tip-off set for 7:30 pm.

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