NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — The kings of Division III hoops returned to the 757 on Sunday afternoon, where a crowd of Captains fans welcomed them home upon their arrival from their National Championship win over Mount Union in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The Captains stormed back to get the win after being down by as much as 14 in the first half, which means after Saturday's game, the Captains are 9-0 when trailing at halftime.
When asked about it after returning, Trey Barber said those situations have clearly worked out for them.
"I don't know why we do that," he joked. "But it ends up working and it drives us more."
He didn't get much sleep after his epic finish that sent the Captains to victory. It was a play that etched the first spot in SportsCenter's Top 10 Plays Sunday morning.
"I was in my hotel room at like 4 a.m. and I couldn't sleep and at 5 or 6 I was just sitting there thinking like, 'dang, we really won.'"
Head Coach John Krikorian also said that they practice those types of situations often, and he reflected on his decision to not use his final timeout in those remaining seconds.
"The hardest defense to play is transition defense, especially when a team is maybe celebrating. Four seconds is kind of the number that we practice. We're going to get it out and go and try to beat them down the floor," he said.
Krikorian had complete faith in Barber in the final moments.
"I looked up and they had thrown the ball into Trey, and I thought I would need to call a timeout, but he had daylight in front of him and had had an incredible game. I didn't think we were going to get a better shot then him driving to the basket," Krikorian said.
"The referee said immediately we're going to review so all I could think about was these guys are running around the court and I might have to get them ready for overtime. I was still in that mode until the referee came over and from there it was just a sign of relief."
The 74-72 victory over Mount Union marks the first ever National Championship in CNU men's program history.