City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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UNC Wilmington didn’t waste time Thursday night in reminding the Daskalakis Athletic Center audience why it holds the title of defending CAA tournament champion and currently sits atop the league standings.

The Seahawks, who have won 17 of their last 21 regular season conference games, have proven themselves to once again be the Colonial’s team to beat, and sent that message to their most recent victims the Drexel Dragons, early and often.

Just two minutes in, UNCW had opened up an instant eight-point advantage which forced a quick timeout from head coach Zach Spiker, possibly to wake up his team and get back into the game before it got ugly.

Unfortunately for a Drexel squad in search of its first regular-season league win since February,  the wake-up didn’t happen until it was far too late.

Even a strong second-half comeback to pull within single digits was not enough to overcome a sluggish opening frame, as the Dragons dropped their fourth straight loss by a lopsided final tally of 90-72.

“Wilmington, very good basketball team, I thought they played like it tonight,” Spiker said. “I thought their first half was one that the selection committee was watching, because that’s what an at-large team looks like on the road.”

UNC Wilmington, which won 25 games and reached last year’s NCAA Tournament, has experienced a revitalization under third-year head coach Kevin Keatts. The Seahawks shared the CAA regular season title in each of his two prior seasons, after going seven years without a winning season.

Spiker spoke very highly of the Seahawks – who currently sit at No. 17 in the RPI ranking – and believes that they can be the type of team that can put the CAA on a national stage in terms of being a multi-bid league in March.

“It’s your job to report that that is a top 25 basketball team,” he said. “That is one of the best teams to play in the CAA in a number of years. We owe it to that team...to not talk about them a week before the tournament. This year, we’ve got the opportunity to get two teams in, because that is an at-large team.”

Drexel (6-10, 0-3 CAA) seemed to have some life in the last six minutes or so of the first half, as a three-pointer by Sammy Mojica brought some life to the disappointed and quiet crowd and cut the Seahawks’ lead to 35-19 with 3:45 to go.

In response, UNCW (14-2, 3-0 CAA) finished the half arguably more dominant than they had started it, using a 12-2 tear to open up their biggest lead to that point, 47-22, and ultimately went into the break up 49-26.

By that point, the Seahawks already had three players in double figures, as opposed to the Dragons, whose leading scorer at the break, freshman Kurk Lee, had just six points.

In the second frame, however, the offense finally got itself going as the Dragons began to find their way back into contention, as leading scorer Rodney Williams – who finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds – got things going down low to spark the offense after four first-half points.

“We didn’t really say much about (the first half),” Spiker said of his halftime locker room. “They understand that we’re a team that is not going to back down from anybody in our conference, anybody that we play. I don’t care how many points we’re down.

“I had no doubt in my mind we were going to make a run. It was just a matter of how much of a run and how much time was left on the clock.”

John Moran, who finished with 12 points on 4-of-9 3-point shooting, made multiple key shots to make things interesting down the stretch, as his back-to-back triples with under five minutes to play had Drexel within nine.

Although the Seahawks responded to finish strong and win by a convincing margin, Spiker’s Dragons showed a lot of character in fighting back to make their defeat respectable.

“To our guys’ credit, they never gave in,” Spiker said. “With what took place in the first half, to score 46 (second-half) points, to come out and play some guys out of position from a mismatch standpoint to be successful...John Moran was making some plays for us, and it was great to see.”

It certainly didn’t help Drexel that UNCW simply could not miss, particularly from long distance in the opening half.

The Seahawks hit six of their nine first-half triples, and ultimately shot 56 percent from the field and 41 percent from three in their third straight win.

Their hottest shooter, Denzel Ingram, went 6-of-10 from 3-point range on the night for a 22 points – his 22 were the game-high, along with Devontae Cacok who had the same output.

Two of Ingram’s four first-half triples came on back-to-back possessions for the Seahawks to open up a 24-7 lead prior to the under-12 media timeout.

According to Spiker, the way UNCW plays is something he hopes to see his team be modelled off of, in terms of what a league champion looks like.

“There’s definitely some similarities,” Spiker said. “When you think about it and when you look at teams that have won the CAA, they look a lot like that. They’re great with the ball, they move it, they take tough shots, they take open shots, they have that shot-making ability. That’s what a championship team looks like, and yes, if you’re asking me if I want to play like a team that’s won the league, you better believe it.”

But although they were unable to beat such a formidable opponent, the character the Dragons displayed in a losing effort was enough to leave their head man pleased.

“This will be a positive,” Spiker said. “Yes, we are 0-3. That doesn’t mean anything to us. Our process, our progress, we moved forward tonight.”