Newport News, Va. --- Roanoke traveled to the campus of Christopher Newport and defeated the tournament-host, 90-81 in front of a hostile crowd Friday evening. The Maroons will advance to the Championship of the 23rd Annual CNU Invitational and improve to 4-1 on the season.
The win ends a two-game skid against the CNU and is now 2-3 against the Captains. The win avenged an 84-54 loss back in 2001 in the NCAA Tournament. The Maroons advanced to the Championship game in their first appearance in the tournament. The CNU loss is the second-straight, both coming against ODAC teams (VWC, 88-78).
The Maroons won with defense, outrebounding CNU, 38-35 including 15-9 offensively.
Aaron Tyson led the Maroons with seven rebounds, four on the offensive end to go along with seven points and three blocked shots. They also scored 90 points for the second time this season which is one game less than all of last season.
The Maroons outscored the Captains, 45-30 in the second half and took care of the ball exceptionally well with a season-low nine turnovers. They forced 15 CNU turnovers in to improve their record to 4-1 for the second-straight season. The last back-to-back 4-1 records came during the 1999-00 and 2000-01 season which was the last time the Maroons made the NCAA Tournament.
Roanoke outscored their opponents, 46-40 in the paint, 20-11 off turnovers, 15-9 in second chance points and 40-24 off the bench.
Roanoke jumped out to an early 10-6 lead as
Curtis Peery scored the first five buckets of the game just four minutes into the game.
With the scored tied at 18-apiece, CNU went on a 16-2 run to give the Captains a 34-20 lead with eight minutes remaining in the first half.
They continued to stay within 13 points ahead of the Maroons before
Corey Poindexter sparked a 9-2 run in the last two minutes to cut the deficit to six, 51-45 at the half.
Zach Milton stormed out the gate in the second half with six of the team's eight points to continue the momentum from the end of the first half to tie the game at 53-all just two minutes in the second half.
CNU went on a 9-0 run to build their lead to 64-55 with 14:19 remaining and seemed in control of the game.
Roanoke didn't give up and countered by slowly chipping away at the CNU lead.
Melvin Felix scored six-straight points including an acrobatic layup with 4:49 remaining to give them its first lead, 78-77 for the first time since midway through the first half.
Roanoke (4-1), who trailed nearly the entire contest, stormed out the gate in the second half and was neck-and-neck with the Captains for the remainder of the game. Milton and
Melvin Felix scored eight second-half points to spark the Maroons offensively to get back in the game.
The Captains were denied their 15th tournament title in the Holiday Classic by the Maroons late in the game thanks to some big offensive rebounds from Tyson to keep the ball in their possession during the final minute of the game which forced the Captains to foul.
The Maroons continued to build their lead and outscored CNU, 12-4 to end the game. Poindexter hit a big three-pointer to give them an 85-81 lead with just over a minute remaining. Tyson had a big defensive and offensive rebound to give the Maroons another possession and take more time off the clock as Poindexter was fouled with 49-seconds remaining. He hit both free throws to give them an 87-81 lead.
Peery finished with 23 points, four rebounds and four assists in the defeat. He enters tomorrow's game needing only 35 points to reach 1,000 for his career. He scored 20 of his 23 points in the first half to keep the Maroons within six points at halftime.
Matt Crizer finished with nine points off 3-of-5 from beyond the arc. Poindexter had 13 points while
Drew Gaeng had six points (2-of-2 three's) with career-highs of four assists and three steals.
Kendrick Chittock had seven points and five rebounds.
Theo Baker and Michael Green each combined for 38 points, scoring 19 each to lead the Captains (1-2). Josh Russell had 11 points while Mark Balsingame had 10 points and seven rebounds.
The men will take on Wesley (DE) tomorrow at 7 p.m. in the championship game of the Christopher Newport Invitational. The Maroons are 1-1 vs. Wesley and took an 85-63 decision in their last meeting in 2000-01.
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