BUENA VISTA, Va. -- For just the third time in Christopher Newport women's basketball history, the Captains escaped the conference schedule unbeaten and capped a perfect 10-0 record against Capital Athletic Conference opponents on Wednesday night with a 74-64 win on the road at Southern Virginia University (16-8, 4-6). Powered by a strong start as the Captains outscored the Knights 20-4 in the opening quarter, Christopher Newport improved to 21-4 overall, 10-0 in league action.
The regular season champs of the CAC were perfect in conference play this season for the first time since an 18-0 run through the USA South Athletic Conference in 2009-10. It also is the first time since 2011-12 that a member of the Capital Athletic Conference has gone undefeated in conference play when Mary Washington was 16-0.
Leading the way over the course of the night was freshman
Anaya Simmons, who scored a career-high 21 points while grabbing seven rebounds for the Captains. Her second career 20-point showing pushed her back over double figures as the rookie is now averaging 10.2 points per game heading into her first conference tournament next week. Sophomore
Sondra Fan also finished in double figues with 18 points while adding three rebounds and two assists.
The Captains shot 41.4% (24-58) in the game and held the Knights to just 24.1% (7-29) in the momentum-tilting first half. In the first quarter, Southern Virginia managed to hit just two shots on 20 attempts while the Christopher Newport offense also got a pair of starters in foul trouble. In building the lead in the first, Fan scored six points and
Phylicia McInnis added five as each player had one three-pointer in the first 10 minutes. Sophomore
Natalie Terwilliger made her presence felt on the defensive end with three blocked shots while the Captains kept SVU All-American Katie Garrish at bay, shooting 0-for-6 in the opening stanza.
With a pair of three-pointers on three attempts, rookie
Lizzie Thibodeau led the second quarter scoring for the Captains with six points. Her back-to-back triples followed by a pair of free-throws from Simmons grew the lead to a game-high 21 points with 4:45 remaining in the second quarter, 34-13. Fellow freshman
Sawyer Freeland also had five points in the frame as the first-year players combined for 15 of the Captains' 17 second-quarter points while shooting 5-for-9 from the floor.
In the fourth quarter, Southern Virginia mounted an attempted comeback primarily from the free-throw line. The Knights were a perfect 18-for-18 from the line in the final ten minutes as Christopher Newport was whistled for 10 fouls in the final frame despite holding the home team to just 3-for-9 from the floor. The lead was trimmed all the way to six on a three-pointer by Anna Singer with 20 seconds remaining but the Captains responded with a perfect 4-for-4 run at the line from
Bailey Hodges and
Sondra Fan to clinch the victory.
The top-seeded Captains will now await the winner of the first round matchup between #4 Salisbury and #5 Southern Virginia being played on Saturday. Christopher Newport will host the winning team on Wednesday, February 26 at 8:00 p.m. as part of a conference tournament doubleheader with the men's team. Live stats and live video will be available at CNUsports.com.
