ARLINGTON, Va. -- After leading by as many as 13 points in the second half, the 17th-ranked Christopher Newport women's basketball team suffered a gut-wrenching loss at top-seeded and 19th-ranked Marymount University on Saturday night, falling in the Capital Athletic Conference Championship Game, 61-60, after a buzzer-beating layup with 0.3 seconds remaining. 

Christopher Newport led for nearly 39 minutes of game time, and the game was locked for the remaining 1:23. It wasn't until the final shot that Marymount took it's first lead, capturing the Saints' 13th conference championship and forcing CNU onto the bubble for the 2018 NCAA Championships. A live video webcast of the selection show will be held at 2:30 pm at NCAA.com, when the Captains will find out if they've done enough to extend their season with a 23-4 overall record. 

Offensively, the Captains put together a strong first three quarters against one of the nation's top defensive units, scoring over Marymount's opponents average with 51 points in the first 30 minutes. In the fourth, however, the home team held CNU to just nine points while forcing 10 turnovers, including a pivotal giveaway with 8.3 seconds remaining on the clock. On the final possession, Marymount senior Leah Hurst, who had been held to just 1-of-9 shooting in the game prior to the final shot, drove to her right around a screen and lobbed a running layup off the glass that rolled in off the rim just before the buzzer sounded.

CNU opened the game on an 11-4 run to take an early lead, running right at the Marymount defenders and getting to the free-throw line. The Captains started 7-for-7 from the charity stripe and knocked in a pair of layups in the early spurt. The first quarter lead would build to nine, 17-8, when Jessica Daguilh hit her second layup of the frame, but Marymount would go on an 11-2 run to tie the game at 19 less than three minutes into the second quarter. 

From there, CNU quickly re-took the lead on a free-throw by Zhara Tannor and back-to-back three-pointers from Makenzie Fancher. Once again the Captains surged ahead by nine, 32-23, on a free-throw by Anitra Thomas. The Captains shot just 25.8% from the field (8-31) in the first half, but were excellent from the line to build a 32-27 lead at the break. The Captains knocked down 13-of-15 attempts from the charity stripe in the first 20 minutes, including a perfect 9-for-9 in the first quarter. 

The Captains looked primed to pull away in the third quarter when senior Anitra Thomas two unanswered triples in the middle of the stanza to put the Captains ahead by 13 (44-31). After a short run by the Saints, the Captains got the lead back to 11 heading into the final 10 minutes of action, 51-40. 

After shooting 19 free-throws in the first three quarters, the Captains made it to the line just once in the fourth. CNU also continued to struggle from the field, knocking down just 3-of-11 shots in the fourth to allow Marymount's comeback to mount. Still, a three-pointer from Makenzie Fancher with 1:10 remaining gave the Captains a five-point lead in the final seventy seconds. 

Gabriella Haddad earned a put-back jumper after grabbing her own rebound with 25 seconds remaining, and then the Captains immediately turned the ball over and fouled Regan Lohr. Lohr knocked down both free-throws with 19 seconds remaining to pull within one, 60-59. With Marymount being whistled only twice in the fourth, the Saints had fouls to give before sending the Captains to the line. In a ten-second stretch of game time, Marymount attempted to get the steal before picking up two fouls.  Finally, with 8.3 seconds remaining, the Captains turned the ball over again on the inbounds to set up the game-winning play for Hurst and the Saints. 

In the loss, CNU was led by Anitra Thomas with 13 points, while Fancher finished with 12 points on four made three-pointers. Junior point guard Zhara Tannor also eclipsed 100 assists for the second straight year, becoming just the eighth player ever and the first since 2002-03 to post back-to-back 100-assist seasons. 

Marymount was led by Nicole Viscuso, with 15 points, and Haddad, with 14. Viscuso fell just one rebound shy of a double-double, while Leah Hurst added 10 assists to go with her game-winning theatrics. 

The Captains fall to 23-4 on the season with two losses to the nationally-ranked Saints, one to Thomas More, ranked in the top five nationally, and a two-point setback to York (Pa.). CNU has reached four of the last five NCAA Tournaments, finishing with at least two victories in each postseason, including a run to the NCAA Final Four last year.