Barber, No. 2 Captains escape scare

CNU edges NY foe to reach round of 32

Thanks in large part to Trey Barber’s late heroics, the Christopher Newport men avoided a strong upset bid Friday by Farmingdale State in the NCAA Division III championship tournament’s first round.

The Captains, ranked second nationally by d3hoops.com, repelled the unranked Rams 61-60 at Hampden-Sydney’s Kirby Field House. Farmingdale

State (21-8), a New York team that won the Skyline Conference, surged to a 41-27 lead early in the second half before CNU rallied to win in a white-knuckle finish.

Barber had 19 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks as CNU (25-3) won its 10th consecutive game and advanced to a 7:20 contest tonight in the round of 32. The Captains will face the winner of Friday’s second game, which pitted Hampden-Sydney vs. Emory of Atlanta. H-SC won at CNU in the regular season.

Also for the Captains, Jahn Hines added 14 points and six rebounds, and Matt Brodie had 10 points and nine rebounds.

For the Rams, Aaron Davis and Tre Riggins had 15 points apiece. Riggins, who had made two 3-pointers all season, was 3 for 3 from beyond the arc Friday.

Barber’s layup with 10:13 to go capped a 16-1 burst that gave CNU a 43-42 lead. The teams seesawed from there.

Farmingdale led 58-55, but Barber made the Rams for playing him one-on-one in the post late in the game. He scored from point-blank range, then followed his own miss to give the Captains a 59-58 lead.

The Rams’ Zamere McKenzie sank two free throws with 58.1 seconds to go, putting Farmingdale ahead 50-59. But Barber rolled in another shot in the lane with 42 seconds to go for what proved to be the winning basket.

CNU made a steal, but Brodie missed the front end of a one-and-one. Barber blocked a potential go-ahead shot in the final seconds, but Farmingdale got the ball after it went out of bounds. Just before the final buzzer, the Rams’ Corey Powell hit the front rim on a turnaround 17-footer, enabling the Captains and their fans to exhale in celebration.