NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - Men's Basketball took to the road on Sunday to compete against Ferrum College in the Christopher-Newport Captain's Shootout where they won in an overtime thriller, 83-79.
Braxton Benham was phenomenal in his best game of the season, dropping his career-high 33 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds. Isaac Martin also came up big with 6 three-pointers and a total of 20 points, 5 rebounds, and 4 assists. Joining the key performers once again this season was Parker Godwin, who had his second double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds with a career-high 7 assists. As a team, the Vikings notched a season-high 24 assists.
The Vikings started slow out of the gates and the Panthers took advantage with a 14-2 run to begin the game. Parker Godwin got things going for the Vikings with a floater that ignited the Viking offense.
The star of the first half for Berry was the three-point shooting of Isaac Martin, who had 4 first-half three-point makes, keeping the Vikings in the game early on. Midway through the first half, Drew Winegarden drove the ball to the basket and kicked it out to Jacob Morgan who drained a three-pointer over the outstretched hand of a defender, cutting the Ferrum lead to 4 with 10 minutes to play in the first half. Later in the half after a Ferrum run, Isaac Martin caught fire with back-to-back made threes that brought the Vikings within 5, 32-27, with 4 minutes to play in the half. The two teams continued to go back and forth for the remainder of the half until Braxton Benham drew a foul on a 3-point attempt just before the half, making it a 6-point deficit for Berry at halftime, 42-36.
In the opening stages of the second half, the Vikings made their move to take back control of the game. Leading scorer, Braxton Benham, weaved his way to the rim and finished a leaning layup to cut the Ferrum lead to 44-40. A few plays later, Isaac Martin picked up where he left off in the first half when he drained a corner three-pointer that cut the Ferrum lead to just one point. Strong defense would then lead to Parker Godwin to grabbing a defensive rebound and going coast to coast for a fast break layup that gave the Vikings a one-point lead, 45-44.
The sea saw affair continued as both teams traded baskets, with neither notching a sizable edge. With the Vikings trailing by 2 In the final minutes of regulation, Braxton Benham drove the baseline and put up a layup that was goaltended by a Ferrum defender, knotting things up at 75 with a minute to play. A wild sequence would ensue in the final 15 seconds of the game as Benham would block a shot and come down with a rebound before the Vikings would miss a 3-pointer and allow Ferrum two open layups on the other end which were both missed, sending the game to overtime.
Overtime is when momentum finally shifted in the Vikings' favor, as Braxton Benham scorched the net with a step-back jump shot and a three-pointer that gave the Vikings an 80-75 lead. Benham then found Jacob Morgan with a beautiful bounce pass for an easy layup that put things away for Berry in what was a huge win for the program over the now 9-2 Ferrum Panthers.
The Vikings will play in the championship game of the Captains Shootout against the winner of Misericordia and Christopher-Newport tomorrow at 5 PM ET.
