NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Opening up conference play on Friday afternoon against York College of Pennsylvania, the Christopher Newport women's basketball team utilized a dominant 21-4 third quarter run to power past the Spartans for a 64-50 win. The Captains improved to 12-4 overall and 1-0 in CAC action behind a double-double from
Natalie Terwilliger, as the sophomore finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds in the game.
The Spartans took a 30-28 lead at halftime but would fall to 9-7, 0-1 after the Captains dominated the third quarter by holding York to just one made field goal and four total points in the frame. In the decisive third stanza, the Captains defense forced eight turnovers and held the Spartans to just 1-of-13 shooting for a 7.7% effort from the field.
Out of the locker room, the Captains turned to Terwilliger early as she tied the score on a second-half opening layup to key a 13-0 burst that put her team in control for good.
Sondra Fan quickly ripped a steal and finished on a fast-break layup and
Julia Ng found Terwilliger for another quick bucket as the Captains pulled ahead 34-30 less than two minutes into the half. Junior
Jasmine Norman and rookie
Anaya Simmons added layups in the burst and Christopher Newport took a 41-30 lead with less than five minutes to go in the frame.
Coming out of the media timeout, York finally scored to on a Kayla Ferris layup to temporarily end their drought, but Norman got a beautiful feed from Simmons at the elbow to bury a long-range three-pointer and answer moments later. Sophomore
Phylicia McInnis then hit one of her three triples in the game to open up a game-high 15-point edge with 3:06 remaining, 47-32.
From there, Christopher Newport held onto a double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest and captured a 64-50 victory. York would get no closer than 12 points in the fourth.
Prior to the second-half burst, the Captains struggled from the field and allowed the visiting Spartans to get out to a lead in the opening quarter. York led by as many as eight points in the first quarter when Meghan Carlson finished out a three-point play just before the buzzer. Despite facing a 20-12 deficit, the Captains scored the first seven points of the second quarter to trim the lead to just one, 20-19, on a three-pointer by
Jessica Foster and strong free-throw shooting by Terwilliger and
Bailey Hodges. Christopher Newport briefly took the lead on a three-pointer by Fan with 3:32 remaining, but Lindsay Brown and Carlson answered with back-to-back buckets for the first half lead, 30-28.
The Christopher Newport defense forced 30 turnovers and had 13 steals highlighted by a career-high 6 from
Sondra Fan. She also added nine points to rank third in the scoring column for the Captains. Leading the unit in points on Friday was Terwilliger, who knocked down five shots including one three-pointer for 13 in the game. She added 10 rebounds, two blocks and a steal to lead the way. Simmons also scored in double figures with 11 points while grabbing seven rebounds and picking up two steals. McInnis had a superbly efficient performance scoring nine points on 3-for-4 shooting, all from beyond the arc, in just 11 minutes of action. She also added four rebounds and one steal.
York got a double-double from junior Molly Day, with 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Haley Luckabaugh led the Spartans in scoring with a 16-point showing.
Christopher Newport will return to action on Wednesday, January 15 as they host Southern Virginia University at 6:00 p.m. The Knights, who feature USBWA National Player of the Week Katie Garrish, will open conference play on Saturday at home against Salisbury to try and improve on a 12-2 start to the season. Live stats and video will be available at CNUsports.com.
