#9 Christopher Newport Knocks Off #10 Hamilton, Advances to NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals
Christopher Newport advanced to the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament Quarterfinals following a resilient, second-half comeback effort en route to a 75-67 victory over #10 Hamilton on Friday (March 8). CNU extended their win streak to 12 games and will face Williams on Saturday (March 9) at 7:00 p.m. in the Elite Eight.
CNU's Marcus Carter and Jason Aigner each poured in 18 points to lead the Captains to victory, while Cutch Ellis scored 12 points and pulled down 17 rebounds in the contest. After a slow start to the contest for CNU, Hamilton took a 32-20 advantage into the halftime intermission. The Captains went on to outrebound the Continentals 25-15 in the second half (54-35 overall) to propel the comeback, which included a 9-4 offensive rebounding edge.
Christopher Newport fired 48.7 percent in the second half where they outscored Hamilton by a 55-35 margin. CNU also went 13-for-18 from the foul line in the second 20 minutes, while Hamilton only made a pair of free throws. There were four ties and ten lead changes in the contest.
The Captains next opponent, #19 Williams, defeated #2 Whitman by an 84-81 decision in the first game of the evening. The Ephs shot an incredible 67.4 percent from the field for the contest despite committing 29 turnovers.