NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Christopher Newport finished the game on a 16-6 run Wednesday night, pulling away for a 76-62 triumph over Southern Virginia at the Freeman Center. The Captains, now 17-5 overall and 11-4 in the Capital Athletic Conference, were led by a 20-point performance from senior Aaron McFarland and a double-double from sophomore Luther Gibbs, who tallied 13 points and ten rebounds.

CNU led by as many as 15 in the first half before the Knights scored the final six points before the intermission to cut the lead to nine, 36-27. SVU, now 9-13 overall and 4-11 in the CAC, cut the lead as close as four, 60-56, with 4:58 to play in the second half before the Captains finished with the 16-6 flurry. 

Freshman Jason Aigner also reached double digits for the Captains, scoring 12 points on four three-point field goals in the opening half. CNU knocked down a dozen triples in the victory, shooting 12 of 28 from behind the three-point line while the Knights failed to make a three on seven attempts. 

"We've got a lot of guys who can make shots, and we had a lot of them go down tonight," Head Coach John Krikorian said. "Southern Virginia always plays hard, they're a scrappy team and they hung with us by making some really impressive shots. I thought we defended pretty well for the most part, they just made enough shots to stay close."

Senior Aarun Rumbaugh kept the Knights in the game in the second half, scoring 20 of his game-high 24 points after halftime. Senior Cale Thornton posted 16 points and sophomore Justin Prisbrey added 12 for the visitors. The Knights out-scored the Captains in the paint, 42-20, but got just six points off the bench to CNU's 23.

McFarland reached the 20-point mark for the seventh time this season, and has now scored 1,406 career points in 111 games as a Captain. He is tenth on the school's all-time scoring list. For Gibbs, it marked the first double-double of his career as the sophomore scored all 13 of his points in the second half. He finished the night with three steals and two assists as well.

Christopher Newport ended up shooting just 39.7 percent for the game overall (23 of 58), but made 12 of 28 from behind the line (42.9 percent). Six different CNU players recorded at least one three-point field goal.

The Captains held a 43-38 edge in the rebounding column led by Gibbs' ten. Sophomore Cutch Ellis registered eight rebounds for CNU.

"I was really happy to see us win the rebounding battle," Krikorian continued. "We were playing a smaller group for much of the second half, and they worked really hard on the boards."

CNU now leads the all-time series with Southern Virginia, 16-1. The Captains have their next two games on the road, beginning Saturday with a CAC contest at Penn State-Harrisburg. Tipoff time is set for 3:00 p.m. Penn State-Harrisburg's home game Wednesday night vs. York was postponed due to weather conditions, and will be played Thursday night instead. The Lions are 6-15 overall and 2-12 in the CAC.