CNU men to play for first NCAA title
Christopher Newport University’s men’s basketball team will play for an NCAA Division III national championship for the first time in its 55-year history.
The Captains survived a 3-point attempt just ahead of the final buzzer to hold on for a 69-66 win over Swarthmore of Pennsylvania in the national semifinals on Thursday at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The victory sends the Captains (29-3) into the championship game against the winner of the other semifinal between Wisconsin-Whitewater and Mount Union. The title game is set for 4 p.m. Saturday in Fort Wayne and will be telecast on the CBS Sports Network.
Norview High graduate Jahn Hines led the Captains with 22 points, eclipsing 1,000 career points during the game in just his second full season. Trey Barber added 21 points, carrying the Captains through a cold-shooting first half.
Led by Hines, who scored 18 points in the second half, the Captains hit their stride offensively
after intermission and led 60-51 with 4:29 remaining. But the Garnet (28-4) — led by Vinny De’Angelo (23 points) and George Visconti (21 points) — rallied behind five free throws (they made all 17 attempts in the game) and a 3-pointer by D’Angelo to tie the score at 64 with 1:46 to go.
Barber and Hines made two free throws apiece to stretch CNU’s lead to 68-64 with 1:21 left. However, the Captains missed five
of their next six free throws and the Garnet had three chances to tie the game in the final seconds.
The first came after Ty Henderson made a free throw to make it 69-66 with 26.1 seconds to play. DeAngelo followed with a missed 3.
After Hines missed two free throws, his brother, Collin Hines, put a hand in De’Angelo’s face and he missed a 3 with 4.3 seconds left.
Barber rebounded but missed two free throws, giving Colin Shaw a final chance to tie the game with a 3. He missed just ahead of the buzzer.
“Swarthmore is so good and executed so well,” CNU coach John Krikorian said. “But [the Captains] just had a refuse-to-lose mentality that came through.”
The Captains were fortunate to trail only 30-26 at halftime. They made just 9 of their first 28 shots and were outrebounded 22-9.
An exception was Barber, a 6-foot-8 center who made four of his eight first-half shots, blocked three shots and had a pair of steals. His basket in the paint gave the Captains a 9-7 lead with 14:18 to play in the first half.
But the Captains would go almost seven minutes before hitting their next field goal. Following Barber’s basket, the Garnet launched a nine-point run to take their biggest lead of the half at 16-9.
CNU stayed in the game by forcing 10 turnovers the first 20 minutes while committing only three. The Captains committed just four turnovers for the game.
“That was important,” Henderson said. “We pride ourselves on taking care of the ball, and four turnovers is great.”