The University of Mary Washington men's basketball team claimed its third Capital Athletic/Coast-to-Coast Conference championship after downing No. 8 Christopher Newport on Saturday night, 71-66, in Salisbury, Md. The Eagles will reach the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time by claiming the conference's auto-bid for the third time in program history as well.

Mary Washington got out to an 11-8 lead in the first five minutes of Saturday's game before turning it into a 31-24 advantage with a minute left before halftime. As the first half dwindled down, Zack Blue nailed a 3-pointer with three seconds left that gave the Eagles a 34-26 advantage going into the break.

In the second half, the Eagles led by nearly as many as 12 points multiple times early in the second half as Jay Randall's layup extended the lead to that point at the 15:49 mark, while a Kaden Bates bucket with 12:10 left gave UMW its second 12-point lead of the half.

But CNU cut into the lead as it tied the score at 55 with 6:02 remaining, but in the end the Eagles prevailed to win and advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Randall led all scorers with 26 points on 8-of-17 shooting, while Jadon Burgess had 16 of his own on a pair of three pointers, and Blue reached double figures with 10.

All told, UMW shot 20-of-52 from the floor, which included a 5-for-16 mark from deep, while CNU was just 24-of-66 from the floor (36.4%) and 2-of-20 from deep (10%). The Eagles were outrebounded, 47-34, but made up for it by making 26 of their 30 free throws.

The Eagles will see where they land on Monday afternoon in the NCAA Tournament Selection Show that will be broadcast on NCAA.com