ASHLAND — Randolph-Macon College out-scored Christopher Newport University, 9-4, over the final two minutes Wednesday night as the 16th-ranked Yellow Jackets defeated the 7th-ranked Captains, 77-72, in front of 1,013 frenzied fans at Crenshaw Gymnasium. The loss ended a CNU five-game winning streak, and dropped the Captains to 14-4 on the season.
Christopher Newport trailed by two at halftime, 36-34, and the teams exchanged the lead 13 times in the back-and-forth battle, with six lead changes coming in the second half. The teams were never separated by more than six points, and were knotted seven times, including a 68-68 tie with 1:58 to play before the 9-4 game-ending run by the Yellow Jackets.
“It was a great environment and a great college basketball game, and I thought our guys played well enough to win the game,” Head Coach John Krikorian said. “Randolph-Macon hit some big shots down the stretch and won the final three minutes. I thought we did what we needed to do in the second half to match them physically, and we made some tough shots even through contact. Unfortunately tonight some guys who have really given us a lift off our bench just struggled to impact the game, and their bench was just a little bit better than ours.”
Sophomore big man Ethan Ward led the Captains with 19 points, and also pulled down six rebounds. Fifth-year senior All-American Jahn Hines (17), sophomore Tyson Henderson (16), and sophomore Toa Hollenbeck (11) also reached double figures in scoring, and Hines joined Ward for the team lead in rebounds with six.
Jahn Hines moved into fifth place on the CNU all-time scoring list with his 17-point performance, passing Conley Taylor on the list. He is now just eight points shy of Marcus Carter for fourth place on the career scoring list.
Randolph-Macon, now 12-3, won its ninth straight game as junior Amr Areikat scored seven of the nine points down the stretch. Areikat hit a huge three-pointer with nine seconds left as the shot clock was about to expire that pushed the lead to five, 75-70, en route to the R-MC win. Areikat was one of four Yellow Jackets to reach double digits in scoring, finishing with 13 points. Junior Keishawn Pulley, Jr., led R-MC with 16 points.
CNU was out-rebounded in the first half, 21-16, but recorded a 19-9 edge on the boards in the second half for a 35-30 final advantage. The Captains knocked down 30 of 52 shots for 58 percent shooting, while the host Yellow Jackets were held to 42 percent for the game (26 of 62). R-MC helped itself at the charity stripe, converting 19 of 24 foul shots (79 percent).
“I know our guys will have a lot of opportunity to learn from this one,” Krikorian continued. “I think we’re coming together, and I really like where the culture is. Their level of competitiveness is very high, and even when we’re down, I never feel we’re out of a game. This is a tough stretch of four straight road games, and we’ve got to bounce back and be ready to go on Monday.”
Christopher Newport will travel to Langhorne, Pa., on Monday to play Cairn University for the first time ever. Tip off time is set for 3:00 p.m. at Mason Activity Center. The game will be the third of the four-game road stretch for Christopher Newport. Cairn, a member of the United East Conference, is 8-7 presently and 5-2 in conference play.
