{"id":100913,"date":"2025-12-31T06:59:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T06:59:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/100913\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T06:59:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T06:59:07","slug":"captains-women-fall-to-no-18-washu-in-st-pete-classic-finale-72-53","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/100913\/","title":{"rendered":"Captains Women Fall to No. 18 WashU in St. Pete Classic Finale, 72-53"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>(Sydney Smith\/CNU Athletics)<\/p>\n

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Unable to withstand a barrage of three-point shooting from the nationally-ranked Bears in the St. Pete Classic finale, the Christopher Newport women\u2019s basketball team suffered a 72-53 loss to No. 18 WashU (9-2) on Tuesday afternoon to snap a ten-game winning streak. The Captains fell to 12-3 overall after their first loss in six weeks came at Eckerd College in the neutral site tournament in Florida.<\/p>\n

Six of the first seven makes from the field for WashU came from beyond the arc as the Bears built a big advantage early and were able to hold off the Captains for the remainder of the game. WashU, coming into the game with a top-ten scoring offense in the nation with the second most efficient shooting percentage in Division III, showed how it also ranks 21st nationally in three-point percentage as the Bears knocked down 13 triples in the game while shooting over 59 percent.<\/p>\n

The Captains\u2019 defense actually held WashU below its scoring average and forced a season-high 22 turnovers by the Bears. CNU also outrebounded their opponent, marking just the second time this season that the nationally-ranked foe had given up the advantage on the glass when CNU hauled in 44 rebounds to just 37 for WashU.<\/p>\n

The rebounding advantage, which included 24 offensive rebounds for the Captains, could not overcome a frigid shooting performance from the Captains which included a 5-for-33 effort in the second half (15.2 percent). For the game, CNU knocked down 23.6 percent from the field, going 17-for-72.<\/p>\n

The Bears jumped out to a double-digit lead five minutes into the game with the deadly three-point shooting, taking a 17-7 advantage in the first quarter. The lead would grow to as many as 19 in the second quarter, 35-16, with 6:46 remaining before CNU started a methodical trek back. Madison McKenzie<\/a> kicked things off with a traditional three-point play before Elizabeth Creed<\/a> knocked in a long ball off a feed from Atiana Williams<\/a>. After a missed layup, Creed cleaned up the glass with a stick-back and the Captains\u2019 eight straight points trimmed the lead back to 11.<\/p>\n

WashU answered with back-to-back three-pointers again, but McKenzie and McKenna Snively<\/a> each converted tough layups in the lane to make it 41-28 with 2:20 left. In the final 90 seconds of the half, Caitlin Crump<\/a> buried a trey and Jessica Dornak<\/a> answered a late two with one of her own to pull CNU back within ten, 45-35, but a buzzer-beating three by Sidney Rogers extended the halftime lead back to 13 headed into the second half, 48-35.<\/p>\n

The hard work continued as CNU rallied early in the third quarter to trim the deficit to single digits with 7:44 left. Snively started the second half with a finish off a feed by Dornak and McKenzie dropped in a pair of free throws. It was the only scoring for either team in the first four and a half minutes as both teams went ice cold from the field in the third quarter. WashU found the shooting stroke first, knocking down a pair of three-pointers and re-establishing a comfortable lead before heading into the final quarter. The CNU defense held the Bears to just 3-for-11 in the third quarter but the offense could not take advantage and mustered just 1-for-17 from the field.<\/p>\n

The teams played even through the fourth quarter with Sarah Pritz<\/a> leading the offensive production for Christopher Newport. Pritz knocked down a pair of shots including a three for five points while adding a rebound and one steal in the fourth. McKenzie continued a strong effort at the line in the game by going 3-for-4 in the fourth and the sophomore closed out the game 8-for-10 at the stripe.<\/p>\n

McKenna Snively<\/a> led all CNU scorers with 15 points (5-of-9) with a pair of three-pointers. McKenzie also finished in double figures with 12 points while adding five rebounds and a pair of steals.<\/p>\n

Christopher Newport will look to bounce back at home in their next game as the Captains return to the Freeman Center to host Stockton University on Saturday, January 3 at 2:00 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Sydney Smith\/CNU Athletics) ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 Unable to withstand a barrage of three-point shooting from the nationally-ranked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-100913","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}