DANVILLE — Christopher Newport University fell to 5-2 Monday night thanks to an 80-65 loss at Averett University. Sophomore Jamison Graves exploded for a career-high 36 points to lead the Cougars to the victory at the Grant Center.
The tenth-ranked Captains led by as many as ten in the first half before the Cougars, now 4-0, stormed back to pull even at halftime, 33-33. Averett went on to out-score CNU in the second stanza, 47-32, to coast to the victory. Graves knocked down seven three-pointers on eight attempts and logged 15 points in the opening half and 21 more after the intermission.
Fifth-year senior All-American Jahn Hines led the Captains by registering his second straight double-double, finishing with 17 points and ten rebounds. Sophomore Hasan Hammad also reached double digits for CNU, scoring 11 points.
“Averett was terrific tonight, and what can you say about Graves?,” Head Coach John Krikorian said. “We tried four or five of our top defenders on him, and he was unstoppable. They out-rebounded us, out-worked us, and were just better. We’re going to get back to work and hopefully take a lesson from this game and be better for it.”
Fifth-year senior Bryce Shaw came off the Averett bench to score 20 points joining Graves in double figures. Shaw also posted eight rebounds as the Cougars out-rebounded the Captains, 38-36.
The former league-mates from the USA South Athletic Conference were meeting for the 92nd time in the all-time series, and Averett snapped a ten-game CNU winning streak over the Cougars. The Captains now hold a 74-18 edge in the series.
Christopher Newport returns to action on Saturday, hosting Transylvania University in the opening round of the Holiday Inn Invitational at the Freeman Center. Tip off is set for 4:00 p.m.
