SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Freshly minted the No. 4 ranked team in the D3hoops.com Top 25, the Christopher Newport women's basketball team was taking on Cortland, receiving votes in the poll, in the Puerto Rico Clasico tournament on Monday night. The Captains continued the dominant start to the 2022-23 season with another runaway victory, downing the talented Red Dragons, 89-49. 

Christopher Newport fifth-year senior Sondra Fan stole the show in the first half, knocking down a career-high six three-pointers and outscoring the SUNY Cortland (8-2) squad by her lonesome, 22-20, after the first 20 minutes. Fan finished with 22 in the game after limited minutes in the second half due to the score, but turned in her finest outing of the year shooting 8-for-11 including a career-best 6-for-8 from beyond the arc. She added four rebounds and four steals in the win. 

The Captains never trailed in the game, marking the eighth wire-to-wire victory in 11 games so far this season. Were it not for an administrative technical foul to start the game against N.C. Wesleyan earlier this season, it would be nine wire-to-wire wins for the nationally-ranked CNU squad that leads the nation in scoring margin. 

The final margin on Monday night was +40 as the Captains pulled away early to take a 32-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. Fan was the catalyst, scoring 11 points in the opening stanza by burying four of her first five shots. Anaya Simmons and Alivia Giles combined to go a perfect 5-for-5 from the floor in the opening quarter, adding 13 points between them as Christopher Newport shot over 63 percent in the first. 

While the offense was firing, the defense stunned the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons, forcing 10 turnovers in the first ten minutes. Cortland was just 2-for-11 (18.2%) in the first quarter, and Christopher Newport scored 20 points off of Red Dragon giveaways. 

The lead extended to 35 by halftime with Fan continuing her long-range assault. She added another 11 points in the second stanza, going 8-for-10 from the field. Simmons closed the first half with seven points and seven rebounds. Both players finished with less than three minutes of action in the second half and the pre-season All-Americans combined to shoot 12-for-15 from the floor. 

With the game in hand, the Captains turned to it's deep bench to close out the second half. Camille Malagar poured in 11 points with a 6-for-6 run from the free-throw line while Giles and Ashley Steadman each finished with seven points. Rookie Faith Henderson chipped in five points with a three-pointer and Hannah Orloff added five points to go with two steals, a block, and two assists. 

Joining Fan and Malagar in double figures was junior point guard Gabbi San Diego, scoring 10 points on a 3-for-5 shooting effort. She hit one trey and was 3-for-4 from the charity stripe to help lead Christopher Newport on to victory. 

SUNY Cortland, who was 8-1 coming into the contest and receiving votes in the national rankings, suffered just it's second loss of the season. Nyia Longford led the team with 13 points while Casey Travers and Sarah Tully were the only other Red Dragons to sink more than one shot in the game. 

The Captains defense held Cortland to just 29.1 percent (16-55) from the field and 15.8 percent (3-19) from long range. On the other end, CNU finished 51.9 percent (28-54) and 48 percent (12-25) from deep. 

The schedule will now take a pause for the holidays before Christopher Newport returns to action on December 30 at home. The Captains will welcome Rowan at 1:00 p.m. in the Freeman Center, kicking off the second semester of action as part of a triple-header at home. The Captains Shootout will be played at 3:00 and 5:00 p.m. following the women's game at 1:00 p.m.