Shortened title used in sports section: CNU survives against Mary Washington
Last Saturday, the CNU Captains won 81-72 against the University of Mary Washington. Despite the victory, the Captains struggled to close out the game.
The Captains led by as much as 21 points early in the second half. However, the final minute allowed for the lead to be cut down to five with 37.6 seconds left. This was largely due to the Eagles capitalizing on 12 second half turnovers from the Captains.
“Credit to Mary Washington as they had nine steals. They really came after us a little bit when they got down and for us, you gotta watch the film and fix the mistakes. We have to own them and be more prepared for next time.” said Coach John Krikorian.
The Captains are now on a three-game winning streak, improving to 19-5 on the season and 5-1 in Coast To Coast (C2C) conference play.
This is the Captains second victory against Mary Washington (15-7) this season and snaps their six-game winning streak that they had going into this game.
Senior guard Jahn Hines led all scorers with 24 points on 10-16 shooting while shooting 4-6 from three. Hines started off scoring the first eight points for the Captains to help them jump out to a lead they would never relinquish.
“I think just confidence and my teammates trusted me, [they] hit me on a couple of early shots that I made. So I kind of got going early, which gave me confidence to keep shooting and my teammates kept trusting me and kind of gave me the ball,” said Hines.
Toa Hollenbeck also had a huge contribution with 23 points off the bench for the Captains. He credited his teammates for his success.
“My teammates [were] setting me up. Like I said, John was going down every time and [they] were crashing on him. So, just kick outs and everything else was pretty good.” said Hollenbeck
Depth has been a factor for the Captains as two of their players played 36 minutes vs UMW and the team suffered critical injuries during the game. Graduate Student Ian Anderson got hurt while going for a loose ball. Other players that suffered injuries were freshmen guard Toa Hollenbeck and sophomore guard Collin Hines. Both players were briefly looked at during the game but were able to return.
The Captains also had 30 of their 80 points come from the bench. Krikorian emphasized that the team has to have a next-man-up mentality.
“That is why we have a team. We work every day and we feel really good about our depth,” he said.
Another huge impact on the game was rebounding where the Eagles got 21 offensive rebounds compared to Christopher Newport who got 11. This allowed for the Eagles to stay in the game. However, the Captains were able to outrebound the Eagles on the defensive boards, 32-22.
“We were pretty good for the majority of the game but there were a couple of stretches where we did play a smaller lineup so we have to be aware of that moving forward,” said Krikorian.
However, the Captains were able to get out on the fast break following their defensive rebounds as they outscored Mary Washington 15-2 in fastbreak points.
The Captains, who have struggled all season long from the three-point line with a shooting percentage of 32.5%, shot 48% from three. Meanwhile, they held Mary Washington to 37.5% from three.
However, even when the Eagles attempted a comeback, Hines knew that the Captains would be able to close the game out.
“Just dog, just grit, just not one to lose, just that type of feeling and mentality [will] get you a long way,” he said.
Prior to the Coast-to-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament, the Captains will face their rivals Salisbury University on the road. The game will take place on Saturday, Feb. 17th at 4:00 pm.
