CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The TCNJ men's basketball team wrapped up the inaugural Jay Bilas Classic with an 89-44 loss to national powerhouse Christopher Newport on Wednesday night at Queens University.
Jim Clemente capped a strong showing in Charlotte with 13 points – a season high for the second consecutive night – and first-year
Nick Koch doubled his point total for the entire year with 10 off the bench to lead the Lions.
TCNJ (2-8) scored the game's first points on a big-to-big feed from
Matthew Solomon to
Danny Bodine, but that was as good as it got against the 7
th-ranked Captains, who made the Elite Eight a year ago and spent the previous two weeks as the top-ranked team in Division III. Christopher Newport (11-2) rattled off the next 10 points and led by double digits for the final 29:27 of game time.
The Captains led by 29 at halftime (48-19) and by as many as 53 points in the second half before Koch scored six of his 10 in the final 3:50 as TCNJ ended on an 11-3 run.
Matthew Brodie (20 points), Ty Henderson (11), and Jahn Hines (11) combined to go 17-of-24 from the field and 13-of-18 from 3-point range for CNU, which shot 18-for-36 from long range for the night and commanded huge advantages in rebounding (46-19) and second-chance points (17-0). The Captains had 15 offensive rebounds to just one for the Lions.
Clemente, who had 12 points the previous night against Lynchburg, was 4-for-10 from the field and a perfect 4-for-4 at the line while registering a team-best five rebounds. Bodine finished with six points on 3-of-4 shooting to go with four boards.
Kock was 4-for-6 from the field on the way to his 10 points, which doubled his output of five from his three prior appearances.
Anthony DiCaro finished with seven points, while Solomon had four points and a team-high three assists.
The Lions hit the road for another high-profile tournament next week, when they take on on No. 20 Mary Washington at Washington and Lee's Holiday Tournament. Tip is set for 4 p.m. on Thursday, with the consolation and championship games to follow on Friday.
