NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Picking up the team's 20th win in home openers over 23 seasons since the Freeman Center opened, the third-ranked Christopher Newport women's basketball team used a dominant first-quarter to pull away from Bridgewater College on Wednesday night before holding off the Eagles in a 58-51 victory. The Captains improve to 4-0 on the season and matched a program record for consecutive wins at home with their 41st straight home win. 

Adding to the longest active home winning streak in Division III, the Christopher Newport women's basketball team held serve in the friendly confines of the Freeman Center for the teams 252nd career win in 290 total games played since the building opened in 2000-01. The current 41-game roll started against William Peace University on December 16, 2018 and has carried through three straight undefeated seasons in home games including a 10-0 mark in 2019-20, 8-0 record in 2021-22, and an 11-0 push through the 2022-23 season. 

Leading the way against Bridgewater on Wednesday night was junior forward Hannah Orloff, securing the first double-double of her career with a career-high 14 rebounds paired with a team-high 12 points. The Howell, New Jersey product hauled in six offensive boards and grabbed eight on the defensive end to join Anaya Simmons and Natalie Terwilliger as the only CNU players with 14 or more rebounds in a game over the last five seasons. 

She opened the game with a preview of more to come on the very first CNU possession when she snagged the first of her six O-boards and quickly put th Captains on the board with a stick-back layup. She added two more rebounds and a layup as CNU opened up a 7-2 lead over the Eagles in the early burst. 

Christopher Newport ended the first quarter on a 10-2 run highlighted by a pair of McKenna Snively three-pointers. The first gave Christopher Newport a ten-point lead, 17-7, and the second made it 13 with less than two minutes to play in the opening stanza, 22-9. In the final minute, Nicole Timko ripped a steal and sent Alivia Giles streaking down the lane where she was fouled and converted two free throws to take a 15-point lead, 24-9, after ten minutes. 

CNU built the lead to as many as 19 with a pair of Timko touches at the start of the second quarter, but after pulling ahead 30-11 with 8:27 left in the first half, the Captains went cold from the field. Snively drained her third triple of the game with 4:48 left, but neither team could muster anything on the scoreboard after that. The Eagles added two field goals as both teams struggled from the field and combined for only 21 points in the second quarter. 

The shots started to fall again in the second half as the Captains turned turnovers into points including a runout by Camille Malagar to kick off the third quarter scoring after grabbing a steal in the open court. Ashley Steadman then finished after a steal by Faith Henderson and Giles went to the line again after Hailey Kellogg snared a pass for another theft. The stingy defense kept Bridgewater at arms length and carried an 11-point edge into the final quarter, 46-35. 

Another hot start to the quarter in the fourth rebuilt the lead to as many as 16 when Malagar flushed in a triple with jus over eight minutes left to make it 53-37. Bridgewater chipped away slowly and got the deficit down to seven, but another steal and finish, this time by Giles and Orloff, respectively, was the final nail for the Captains victory. The finish made it 57-48 with three minutes to go and the Eagles offense could not capitalize against the tough CNU defense. 

In all, Christopher Newport scored 23 points off of 25 Bridgewater turnovers. The Captains had 16 steals including three apiece from Giles, Kellogg, and Snively. 

In addition to Orloff's double-double, Malagar finished with 11 points and Giles added nine points and eight rebounds. Snively had nine on three treys while Steadman added six points on 3-of-6 shooting from the field. 

CNU will now turn to the Captains Round Robin Classic, hosted at the Freeman Center this weekend with three games on the docket. First, East Texas Baptist University will face off against Elizabethtown at 6:00 p.m. on Friday, November 17 before the Captains take on ETBU on Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm and Elizabethtown at 2:00 pm on Sunday.