The University of Mary Washington men's basketball team battled back from a 14-point second half deficit to cut the margin to one in the final minute, but fell to visiting Christopher Newport University, 58-54, on Wednesday night at the Anderson Center. The Eagles slip to 5-10 in Capital Athletic Conference play.

The Eagles jumped out to a 6-0 lead, led by four points from freshman Eric Shaw. CNU went on a 10-1 run to capture the lead at 10-7 with 12:22 remaining in the first half, But the Eagles then answered with seven straight points to take a 14-10 lead with 5:41 left.

The Captains tied the score twice more in the next two minutes, but the Eagles mantained the lead at 20-18 with 1:09 remaining. The Captains hit a three pointer and followed with a pair of free throws to take a 23-20 lead into halftime.

CNU opened the second half with a run that propelled their lead to 14, at 37-23, with 13:46 left. The Eagles slowly cut into the deficit, using five points from Shaw and four from senior Taylor Johnson to cut the deficit to eight, at 43-35 with 7:39 remaining. A Johnson three pointer cut the deficit to five with 7:04 on the clock, and after CNU reclaimed an eight point lead with 4:33 left, UMW used a free throw and basket from Shaw and a three pointer from Johnson to trim the deficit to two, 52-50, with 3:07 left.

After a Captains free throw, Shaw hit a pair of free throws to cut the margin to 53-52 with 58 seconds left. CNU then connected on four straight free throws before a Shaw basket with 10 seconds left cut the margin to 57-54. After missing the first free throw with seven seconds left, CNU made the second, and a last-second three fell short, giving the Captains the four-point win.

Shaw led the Eagles with 23 points on 7-9 shooting from the floor and also went 9-12 from the free throw line, and added a team-high eight rebounds. Johnson scored 12 points with three 3 pointers, and grabbed six boards.

The Eagles shot 37.2% (16-43) from the field, making 3-15 three pointers, and went 19-28 from the line. CNU shot 19-49 from the field (38.8%), with 5-22 three pointers and 15-21 on free throws. CNU led in rebounds, 35-30.

The Eagles will return to action on Saturday when they host Penn State-Harrisburg at 3:00 p.m.