ARLINGTON, Va. - Christopher Newport used two impressive bursts Sunday to capture the Championship of the Pablo Coto Tipoff Tournament at Marymount University. The Captains, now 2-0, defeated the host school by a 66-56 final margin. Fifth-year senior Marcus Carter was named the MVP of the two-day tourney after recording team highs in points (15) and rebounds (9) against the Saints.

The Captains trailed in the opening half, 8-5, before going on a 15-2 run to take a 20-10 lead. After Marymount cut the advantage to six at the half, 34-28, CNU came out strong in the second half. The Captains went on a 19-0 run and held the Saints scoreless for the first nine minutes and 15 seconds to surge to a 53-28 midway through the second half. MU closed the gap down the stretch and out-scored the Captains, 14-2, in the final minutes to account for ten point final verdict.

"This is a really good win for our program," Head Coach John Krikorian said. "Marymount is a strong team and they're going to win a lot of games this year. I was really pleased with the way we defended, and those were two key runs for us."

Carter, who had scored nine points in Saturday's victory over Trinity in the opening round, was joined on the All-Tournament team by junior Luther Gibbs, who scored eight points and pulled down six rebounds on Sunday. Sophomore Jason Aigner tallied a dozen points and posted six boards for the Captains, who avenged a pair of two-point losses last year to Marymount in the Saints' final year in the Capital Athletic Conference.

The Captains out-rebounded Marymount by a 45-39 margin, and held the Saints to just 35 percent shooting for the day (20 of 58). For the second straight game to open the season, all 17 players dressed for CNU saw action. Christopher Newport opens its home schedule on Saturday, hosting Methodist at the Freeman Center. The game will be a part of the CNU Invitational, with a scheduled start time of 4:00 p.m.

"It would be great to have a big crowd this weekend at the Freeman Center," Krikorian said. "This is a really talented group of guys and I think we're going to continue playing an exciting brand of basketball. There are some good teams coming in for the Invitational, so I think there will be some really good games."

Thomas More and John Carroll will join the Captains and Methodist in the two-day tournament next Saturday and Sunday at the Freeman Center.