LYNCHBURG, Va. - The Christopher Newport men's basketball team couldn't overcome a sluggish first-half performance on the road and dropped their first game of the season to Lynchburg, 90-66. The loss drops CNU to 2-1 on the season heading into the Thanksgiving holiday.
The Hornets raced out to an early lead as a balanced attack built a 19-point advantage for the home team before CNU connected on their first field goal, a layup by
Tim Daly nearly ten minutes into the game. The basket trimmed the Captains deficit to 22-5 but the Hornets answered immediately with a 7-0 run to build their largest lead of the first half at 29-5.
Sophomore forward,
Tim Daly, and senior guard,
Mike Cherry, did their best to spark the Captains combining to score 23 of the Captains first-half points, but 10 first half turnovers and an 8-34 shooting performance from the floor doomed the Captains as they went to the locker room trailing 48-27.
It would prove to be an insurmountable margin for the young Captains team.
Cherry, and his teammates pieced together a spirited run at the beginning of the second half. Freshman,
Marcus Carter hit back-to-back three pointers to cut the Hornets' lead to 17 with just under 14 minutes to play. A Cherry three-point play along with two three-point baskets from
Connor Laframboise and a Daly layup brought the Captains within 10 at 62-52 with 8:24 to play. It would prove to be the closest CNU would get. Lynchburg used eight unanswered free throws to extend the lead back to 19.
Daly led all CNU scorers with 20 points. Cherry added 18 points and Carter contributed 13. For the game, CNU shot 31.3% from the field and connected on 7 of their 31 three-point tries.
Lynchburg's balanced attack resulted in five players who reached double figures. Austen Arnold led all scorers with 24 while Zack Burnett had 17, A.J. Hamilton finished with 15, Alex Graves contributed 12 and Daniel Rowe had 10.
Christopher Newport returns to action on Sunday, November 30 with a 2 p.m. game at Haverford College in suburban Philadelphia.
