North Tidewater News

No. 1 Captains Women's Basketball Closes Out Perfect Regular Season With 74-49 Senior Night Win Over Mary Washington

For the second straight season, the nationally-ranked Christopher Newport women's basketball team captured a perfect regular season by stifling Mary Washington on Wednesday night for a 74-49 victory at the Freeman Center on Senior Night. Fifth-year guard Sondra Fan notched her 200th career three-pointer, becoming only the second player in program history to reach the milestone, and led the top-ranked Captains with 19 points in her final home regular season game. 

Fan connected on three triples to join Christopher Newport legend Chelsie Schweers as the only players in Captains lore to reach 200 career three-pointers made. This season, the Poquoson, Va. ranks 12th in the nation in three-point shooting percentage and among the league leaders in total treys. 

While she was leading the way on the offensive end, she was absolutely electric on the defensive end. Pacing the Captains tormenting pressure all night, Fan finished with a career-high eight steals. She was the top thief on a night the Captains snared 21 steals and forced 30 Mary Washington turnovers. Camille Malagar added six steals and Alivia Giles snagged four to lead the way while Hannah Orloff added two and Hannah Kaloi grabbed one. 

Defense led to offense all night as Christopher Newport scored 42 points off the 30 Eagles giveaways. CNU also scored 18 points on the fast break. 

Early in the game, Mary Washington took a four-point lead by opening the game on a 6-2 run over the first 3:10 in the first quarter. From there, Fan hit her milestone-making triple to pull within one before Giles put the team on her shoulders with a six-point blitz of her own. Just after checking in for the first time, Giles finished on a nice feed from Malagar for two, and then immediately picked off the inbounds pass and finished for two more. Moments later, the long arms of the junior forward ripped another steal and Giles was fouled on the way up, sending her to the free-throw line where she capped a personal 6-0 run that took just 26 seconds off the clock. 

Mary Washington teetered back in front by the end of the first quarter, 16-15, but the Captains used a 14-3 burst to start the second and take control of the matchup. Giles was again the catalyst, starting the quarter and scoring the first four points of the run. The defense picked up seven steals and a blocked shot during the run which was punctuated by another fast-break layup, this time from Fan to Lauren Fortescue. 

Christopher Newport led by eight at the break, 36-28, but clenched down even more on the defensive end after intermission. CNU built the lead to as many as 19 in the third quarter as Hannah Orloff got into the action. First she set up Fan for a three-pointer before adding a steal and chipping in three points of her own. She connected on a layup with 2:30 remaining in the third quarter to push the lead to what was then a game-high 19 (57-38). 

With the game in hand, the Captains cruised through the fourth quarter outpacing the visitors by eight in the final frame, 15-7. In the final ten minutes, the CNU defense held Mary Washington to just two made field goals. 

Christopher Newport got double-figure scoring performances from Giles and Anaya Simmons in addition to Fan's 19. Giles scored 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting while Simmosn fell just one rebound shy of a double-double with 14 points and nine boards. Malagar also added a team-high five assists to go with her aforementioned six steals. 

Mary Washington was led by 12 points from Sydney Sherman and 10 by Ashley Martin. 

With the win, the Captains extended the second longest home winning streak in program history to 38 consecutive wins at the Freeman Center. CNU is now 24-0 overall and will enter the postseason with a pristine overall record for the second season in a row and the third time in program history (2009-10, 2021-22). 

Seeding will soon be announced for next week's Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament which will be played at Ron Rosner Arena in Fredericksburg, Va. The quarterfinals are scheduled to begin on Thursday, February 23, followed by the semifinals on Friday, February 24, and the championship game on Saturday, February 25. 

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