MARSHALL, Texas -- After having to wait for tip-off due to the first game of the tournament going into overtime, the nationally-ranked Captains looked as if they were fired out of a cannon in the first quarter on Friday night, racing out to a 20-2 lead against the host East Texas Baptist University Tigers (0-1). Powered by the hot start and a career-high showing from junior point guard
Gabbi San Diego, the Christopher Newport women's basketball team picked up a 63-53 win on the road in the ETBU Tip-Off Tournament.
The Captains held East Texas Baptist to just two first-quarter points as the patented suffocating defense returned for the start of the 2022-23 season. Christopher Newport held the Tigers to under 60 points in the game, marking the 120th such instance since the start of the 2015-16 season; the Captains are 115-5 in those games. For the game, the home team rallied to shoot over 45 percent in the second half, but Christopher Newport built a sizable first-half lead that held off any chance of a comeback.
San Diego was at the helm throughout the contest and finished with a career-high 22 points on 8-of-12 shooting. She knocked down a couple of three-pointers and went 4-for-4 at the free-throw line while also chipping in three assists and two steals in the game. The junior scored 14 of her 22 points in the second half while coming up in the clutch time after time; on four different occasions, San Diego beat the shot clock buzzer with a make the extend the Captains' lead.
Also finishing in double figures with 12 points was
Anaya Simmons, who hauled in a team-high eight rebounds to fall just shy of a double-double against the Tigers.
Katy Rader added nine points and six boards,
Hannah Kaloi scored seven points with three boards, and
Sondra Fan added six points, six rebounds, and three assists to round out the starting lineup. All but seven of Christopher Newport's 63 points were scored by the starting five.
Giving the Captains a spark off the bench was
Camille Malagar, scoring five points on 2-of-3 shooting, and
Hannah Orloff added two points. CNU struggled from long range in the game, shooting just 25 percent from beyond the arc, but made up for it by knocking down 15 of 31 shots from inside the arc.
In the first quarter, the Captains forced nine ETBU turnovers while recording six steals. CNU held the home team to just 1-of-11 shooting while San Diego alone knocked down 4-of-5 shots to lead the opening burst with eight points. The Captains scored the first 11 points, with buckets from five different players in the first five minutes. After a runner in the lane got the Tigers on the board, CNU rattled off another nine straight points including six straight by San Diego to close out the stanza.
The lead would grow to as many as 20 early in the second half on back-to-back three-pointers by San Diego and Fan in the first two minutes. After chipping away at the CNU lead, the Captains closed on a 9-2 run to re-take a 19-point advantage with just the fourth quarter left to play.
The CNU offense went cold in the fourth quarter but came up with key plays when they needed them. With less than three minutes remaining and clutching a 10-point advantage, the Captains all but iced the victory with four offensive rebounds in two possessions to help tick away the clock. The East Texas Baptist offense was held to just one shot in a stretch of 2:24 late in the fourth thanks to those clutch offensive rebounds. After a pair of free throws pulled the home team to within eight with 1:23 showing on the clock, the Captains turned to their star of the night, San Diego, with another buzzer-beating play to put away the Tigers. After circling the ball around the permiter for most of the shot clock, San Diego had the ball in her hands with the clock expiring and the junior guard lofted a floater in the lane that eliminated any chance of late-game heroics by ETBU.
CNU will turn around and play LeTourneau University at 1:00 p.m. (12:00 locally) on Saturday afternooon. Live stats and video will be available at CNUsports.com.
