No. 3 Captains find way to final
Hines’ 31 points lead CNU in Santa Cruz
Norview High graduate Jahn Hines scored 31 points Friday as top-seeded Christopher Newport defeated host UC Santa Cruz 81-73 in a Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal.
The Captains (23-3), ranked third nationally by d3hoops.com, won their eighth consecutive game. They will return to Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz for the championship game at 2:30 p.m. Eastern today against second-seeded Mary Washington, which ousted Salisbury 57-50. The victor will gain an NCAA automatic bid.
Hines, a first-team All-C2C player, was 12 of 17 from the field, including 3 of 4 from 3-point range, and came just two points short of his career high.
Also for CNU, Matthew Brodie had 13 points and five rebounds and Rodney Graves had nine points. The Captains went ahead by 20 early in the second half and withstood a comeback by the Banana Slugs (9-17).
Hampden-Sydney 78, Virginia Wesleyan 69:
The seventh-seeded Marlins pressed the secondseeded Tigers (21-5), but lost an Old Dominion Athletic Conference quarterfinal at Salem Civic Center, ending VWU’s season at 17-9.
Omari DeVeaux scored 22 points, Jordan Crump 11 and Eric Rowland and Amari Moorer 10 each for the Marlins. H-SC, ranked 20th by d3hoops.com, got 20 points from Adam Brazil and 16 from Davidson Hubbard.
H-SC outscored VWU 10-2 to go ahead 59-51 with 7:03 to go. The Marlins never got closer than four again.
Late Thursday
Illinois 66, No. 21 Northwestern 62: Terrence Shannon Jr. shook off a slow start in his return from a concussion, scoring 24 of his 26 points in the second half as the Illini rallied from an 18-point halftime deficit in Champaign, Illinois.
Shannon scored 15 of the Illini’s last 24 points as they erased a 14-point deficit in the final 10:07. His tiebreaking drive with 1:16 left put Illinois (19-9, 10-7 Big Ten) ahead 63-61, and he scored the hosts’ final five points.
Boo Buie led Northwestern (20-8, 11-6) with a career-high 35 points, including six 3-pointers.
No. 4 UCLA 78, Utah 71: Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 17 of his 23 points in the second half and Tyger Campbell added 18 for the Bruins (24-4, 15-2 Pac-12) against the Utes (17-12, 10-8) in Salt Lake City. Mike Saunders Jr. came off the bench to score a career-high 25 points for Utah, which has lost three in a row.
No. 12 Gonzaga 97, San Diego 72:
Drew Timme had 22 points and 13 rebounds for the host Bulldogs (23-6, 13-2) against the Toreros (11-18, 4-11). The win set up a matchup between Gonzaga and Saint Mary’s for the West Coast Conference regular-season title tonight in Spokane, Washington.
No. 15 Saint Mary’s 83, Pacific 52: Logan Johnson scored 29 points in the final home game of his career as Saint Mary’s (25-5, 14-1) clinched at least a share of the WCC regular-season title with a win in Moraga, California.
Saint Mary’s is assured no worse than a tie for first place in the conference for the first time since 2015-16 and can secure its first outright crown since 201112 by winning at No. 12 Gonzaga tonight. Jordan Ivy-Curry scored 11 points to lead the Tigers (13-17, 6-9).
Longwood 75, Gardner-Webb 63: Isaiah Wilkins had 14 points, six rebounds and three steals to lead the Lancers (20-10, 12-5 Big South) over the host Runnin’ Bulldogs (15-14, 10-7).