Box Score
Box Score in HTML Format
Box Score in PDF Format

SALISBURY, MD- Survive and advance…the mantra of all college basketball teams in the post-season. Christopher Newport did exactly that Tuesday night.
 
The fifth-seeded Captains advanced to the semifinals of the Capital Athletic Conference Tournament Tuesday night with an overtime victory on the road at Salisbury, 78-74. CNU's seniors Tra Benefield and Luc Atangana led the way as the Captains held off the Sea Gulls at the Maggs Center.
 
"That was just a tremendous basketball game," Head Coach John Krikorian said following the hard-fought triumph. "Salisbury is a good basketball team and they gave us everything they had tonight…I thought we had the game won in regulation, and they just kept coming at us. It was a terrific win."
 
The back-and forth battle featured 24 lead changes and 14 ties. The game was tied at halftime, 27-27, and still even at the end of regulation, 61-61. The Captains then out-scored the Sea Gulls in the five-minute extra period, 17-13, for the victory. CNU twice took six-point leads in overtime, its biggest leads of the game. Neither team had a lead larger than four points the entire game until the overtime period.
 
Christopher Newport knocked down 19 of 20 free throws for the night, holding off a Salisbury squad that converted 23 of 26 at the line. The Captains out-rebounded the Gulls, 27-24, and shot 56 percent from the field for the night (27 of 48).
 
Senior Tra Benefield led the way with 26 points, 11 in both halves and four in overtime.  Fellow senior Luc Atangana came off the bench to score 16.  Junior Mike Cherry was also in double digits with 14, including four huge free throws in overtime to ice the win.
 
"We got great efforts off our bench tonight from Luc, Evan Thorpe and Hunter Wetherell," Krikorian continued. "They didn't miss a shot (13 of 13) which is absolutely amazing…they gave us a tremendous lift."
 
Benefield, fifth on the school's all-time scoring list, is now 48 points shy of Conley Taylor for fourth place on the list.
 
The Sea Gulls were led by senior Dominic Milburn's 17 points. Salisbury's season ends at 14-12.
 
The fifth-seeded Captains, now 18-8 on the season, will travel to Dover, Delaware, Thursday night to take on top-seeded Wesley College. Game time is set for 7 p.m.