GALLATIN, Tenn. -- The third-ranked Christopher Newport women's basketball team opened play at the Music City Classic hosted by Welch College in Tennessee with a 71-51 victory against Grove City College (5-5). The Captains improved to 11-0 and Bill Broderick secured his 266th career win as the head coach of Christopher Newport women's basketball, becoming the program's all-time winningest coach. He improved to 266-43 and now boasts an overall winning percentage of .861, which is the third-best mark in NCAA Division III history.
Adding his time as the interim head coach at Division I Bucknell University, Broderick is now 268-52 in his career with a winning percentage of .838. That mark ranks among the top ten in NCAA women's basketball history, across all three levels, and currently sits 7th best, just behind legendary Pat Summitt among the winningest coaches all-time.
As the head coach at Christopher Newport, Broderick has won games in 18 different states plus a pair of victories in Puerto Rico. With the victory over Grove City in his first ever coaching appearance against the Wolverines, Broderick has now defeated 76 different programs from 21 different states in his 11 seasons at the helm.
Amid a particularly dominant run in his coaching career, the Captains have won 85 of their last 87 games dating back to December 29, 2019. That burst has included a program record 43-game winning streak, a 31-game roll last season, and another 11 straight to open this year.
The Captains used a dominant second quarter to distance themselves from the Wolverines on Tuesday morning, holding Grove City to just four points in the period. CNU built a 31-19 lead at halftime courtesy of the big second quarter burst which was led by rookie Caitlin Crump with eight points. Crump would go on to finish with a game-high 12 points and added seven rebounds to lead the way for Christopher Newport in the game.
Senior forward Alivia Giles added nine points on 4-of-6 shooting in 13 minutes of action against the Wolverines while also hauling in four rebounds. Mia Wilson and Faith Henderson each added eight points for the Captains to round out a well-balanced offensive performance.
Defensively, the Captains' patented press forced 35 turnovers from Grove City College, marking the third game this season that CNU has forced 35 or more giveaways. McKenna Snively had a team-high five steals in the game while Alexia Lindsey snared three thefts of her own. Hailey Kellogg added a pair while Giles, Nicole Timko, and Jessica Dornak each recorded one for 13 combined steals as a team.
CNU had a strong day at the free-throw line, including a 6-for-7 showing from Wilson and a 5-for-6 effort from the charity stripe by Crump. The two freshmen had the bulk of the attempts as CNU was 72.7 percent from the line on 16-of-22 shooting.
As a team, no player was on the floor longer than 18 minutes in the game and 13 players logged double-digit minutes in the rotation. Katy Rader played in her second game back from injury and scored five points on 2-of-4 shooting in seven minutes of action.
Christopher Newport will return to action on Wednesday to close out the Music City Classic against No. 18 Whitman College. The Blues rolled past No. 7 Wartburg College in the second game of the tournament and improved to 9-1 on the season. It will be the second matchup all-time between CNU and Whitman and the first in regular season play. Live stats and a live video webcast are available from Tennessee with tip-off scheduled for 11:00 a.m., Noon locally.