MIDDLETOWN, Pa. -- Needing a win to earn at least a share of the 2018-19 Capital Athletic Conference regular season championship, the 13th-ranked Christopher Newport men's basketball team left no doubt in the finale on Saturday afternoon, cruising to a 96-52 win at Penn State Harrisburg. Five Captains finished in double figures as the Captains secured their fourth straight regular season league title. 

Paired with a win by York (Pa.) over Mary Washington, the Captains share the 2018-19 championship and won a tiebreaker against the Spartans to secure the top seed in next week's CAC Men's Basketball Championship. CNU will face No. 8-seed Southern Virginia University on Tuesday night in the opening round. 

With the win, CNU improved to 22-3 overall, 12-2 in league play while the Lions fell to 13-12, 5-9, and will travel to Mary Washington Tuesday to take on the third-seeded Eagles. 

Playing on senior day for the Lions, the Captains weathered an early burst by the home team before turning in a huge run late in the first half to take control. Penn State Harrisburg took an 11-4 lead on a tough three-point play by Kahlil Williams just over five minutes into the game, but the crowd was penalized with a technical foul after coming onto the court to celebrate the bucket. From that point, the Captains were energized and went on a 14-1 run to take the lead, which they would never relinquish.

The run was capped by a three-pointer by Marcus Carter than made the score 18-14, ending a futile start from beyond the arc. The Captains missed their first 11 three-point attempts, but turned things around to torch the nets from outside the rest of the way, knocking down 14 of the next 20 to finish the game 45.2% from outside. 

After Carter's three-pointer went down, things opened up for the Captains with a three-point play from Jason Aigner followed by a nice cut to the basket by Adrian Beasley. Back-to-back triples from Carter and Aigner extended the lead to nine and CNU continued it's run through the remainder of the first half. With 5:22 remaining, Carter saw a seam in the defense and blitzed to the basket for a two-handed slam, and on the next possession, found Aigner on a nice backdoor cut for a lay-in. After a 21-20 score with 8:36 left in the first, the Captains went on another big tear, scoring the next 16 points to take a 37-20 lead. That lead would grow to 25 by halftime when CNU took a 50-25 advantage into the break. 

In the first half, CNU turned the ball over only once and shot 55.9% from the field (19-34). Defensively, the Captains held the Lions to just 37% shooting (10-27) and outrebounded the home team, 20-15. 

The Lions never got closer than 22 points the rest of the game as the Captains coasted to their fourth straight regular season league title. Carter led a group of five CNU players in double figures with 17 points and 7 rebounds, adding 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 3 steals. Three more starters finished with 16 points apiece as Jason Aigner, Adrian Beasley, and Cutch Ellis helped the starting five score 65 of CNU's 96 points. Off the bench, Savonte Chappell also finished in double figures with 10 points in 11 minutes on 5-of-7 shooting. 

Defensively, CNU held the Lions to just one player in double figures, as Williams finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds to lead the way. Harrisburg shot just 32.2% (19-59) in the game and was held to only 4-of-13 from beyond the arc. 

Christopher Newport will turn it's attention to postseason play after wrapping up the regular season on Saturday. The top-seeded Captains will host Southern Virginia in the CAC Quarterfinals at 8:00 pm on Tuesday, February 19 with live stats and video available at CNUsports.com. The game will also be broadcast live on Xtra 99.1 FM, the CNU/Pepsi Radio Network.