BRIDGEWATER, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team mounted a big, late run against No. 15 Christopher Newport, but came up just short in the end, 76-73, on the first day of the Bridgewater Tip-Off Tournament on Saturday night.
 
Leading by four points at the start of the fourth, the Captains (3-1) gradually increased their lead over the first six minutes of the fourth, leading by nine with 3:42 remaining. However, a pair of buckets from junior guard Erin Hughes (Raleigh, N.C./Ravenscroft School) began a 10-0 W&L (1-1) run to put the Generals back ahead by a point with 40 seconds remaining.
 
Four straight missed CNU free throws kept the Generals ahead, but a layup from first-year forward Anaya Simmons plus a free throw from sophomore guard Jessica Foster put the Captains back up by two points with 19 seconds remaining. One more free throw from the Captains with five ticks left the Generals down three going into the final possession. Senior guard Taylor Casey (Brentwood, Tenn./Franklin Road Academy) got a three-point shot off at the buzzer, but it went wide as the Captains held on for the win.
 
Both teams played strongly out of the gate, but W&L pulled ahead early, 25-20, through one quarter of play after shooting 10-of-18 (.556) from the floor in the opening frame. CNU opened the second quarter with a triple, but the Generals responded with an 8-2 run to move ahead, 33-25 with under five minutes to play in the half. The Captains climbed back into it before the halftime buzzer, scoring 10 of the final 14 points, as W&L led, 37-35, at the half.
 
A 9-2 Christopher Newport run mid-way through the third quarter gave the Captains a 51-44 lead, but a 7-4 spurt by W&L, started by a three from Casey pulled the Generals back to within four points heading into the fourth quarter.
 
Casey led the way with a game-high 23 points on 9-of-19 shooting from the floor and 3-for-7 from beyond the arc. Casey now stands just 19 points away from becoming the 13th player in program history to join the 1,000-point club. She also added four rebounds and two assists on the night.
 
Hughes contributed 20 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor to go along with five rebounds and four assists, while sophomore guard Jordan Diehl (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) scored 10 points, grabbed eight boards and dished out six assists.
 
Simmons scored 17 points for CNU, on 5-of-6 shooting, and tallied nine rebounds. Sophomore forward Natalie Terwilliger added 15 points and eight rebounds, while sophomore guard Sondra Fan scored 12 points.
 
For the game, the Generals shot 38.6-percent (27-70) from the floor and connected on 7-of-21 (.333) three-point attempts, while the Captains were 27-of-73 (.370) from the field and 7-of-25 from long range. W&L held a 36-28 edge in points in the paint, CNU outscored W&L, 18-12, in second-chance points and both teams scored 19 points off turnovers.
 
The Generals will return to action on Sunday when they take on Gettysburg at 2:00 pm to close out the Bridgewater Tip-Off Tournament.