UNCW Fights Back but Falls to 1-5 in CAA
Seahawk offense finding another gear, but defense can’t finish off comeback
HOFSTRA 89, UNCW 83
Saturday: HOFSTRA 82, UNCW 73
Another great effort, another game within reach in the final minutes, and unfortunately for UNCW, another loss.
And so it goes for the shorthanded Seahawks, who suffered their third straight loss and fifth in six games as the Pride finished off the sweet on Sunday afternoon at Trask Coliseum.
An already-thin rotation shrunk even further, as Coach Takayo Siddle played only six players for the first time all season, as a clearly exhausted Mike Okauru dropped a career-high 30 points to go with nine rebounds and six assists in 39 minutes.
Here are the takeaways from Sunday’s loss and the Hofstra (11-6, 7-3 CAA) series overall:
Ready to Fight
Siddle said on Saturday that he had to get more fight from his team.
Early on Sunday, it wasn’t clear whether that was going to happen, as the Seahawks fell behind by 10 within five minutes and trailed 30-13 at the 10:38 mark.
For a team amid the run of bad luck, it would have been easy for the Seahawks to lay down and look ahead to turning things around next weekend at Elon.
The coach didn’t believe that would be the case as he had an emotional chat with his team during a timeout.
“I gave them some tough love in the huddle and they responded, they came out and played with the type of energy and effort we’re accustomed to,” Siddle said.
Just over seven minutes later, UNCW took the lead at 41-40, and hung around until Hofstra closed the door in the final minute of the game.
“We have a bunch of fighters on this team,” Okauru said. “We knew if we played harder and just played to our capabilities, we could close the gap, and that’s what we did.”
Siddle, who obviously wasn’t pleased with the result, loved the effort.
“Our guys fought,” he said. “I’m proud of our guys; I really don’t have anything negative to ay about our group. I’m asking guys to play around 40 minutes a game and they’re playing so hard which is what our standard is here. They’re playing so hard and they’re starting to play together more and that’s all I can ask of them.”
Better Offensive Finish
As we discussed in yesterday’s post, the 12-minute mark has been a killer for the Seahawks this season.
It was clearly a point of discussion in the locker room, too.
“The last couple games we’ve struggled, maybe at around the 12-minute mark, the game’s really gone a different way for us,” Okauru said. “We just made it an effort to be better the last 12 minutes of the game.”
This time around, Hofstra’s eight-point advantage had been cut to a one-point lead at the 12-minute mark, with UNCW taking a 76-75 lead with 4:59 to go.
Shooting 33.7 in the final 12 minutes of their first five CAA games, the Seahawks ran their offense and got better shots on Sunday, hitting 8 of 19 from the field.
Three turnovers down the stretch and a rushed 3-point attempt in the final minute didn’t help, but UNCW’s inability to finish this one off had more to do with the defense, as the Pride made 9 of 16 shots, grabbed three offensive boards and committed just one turnover in the final 12 minutes.
In all, opponents are shooting 53.9 percent during the decisive stretch.
Defenseless
Hofstra’s 52.5 field goal percentage on Sunday was the fourth time in six conference games an opponent has made more than half of its shots against UNCW.
“I think the area we need to clean up as a group is defensively,” Siddle said. “Stop fouling too much, stop giving up offensive rebounds, stop laying behind them in the post, make sure we communicate on our switches. Those little things, we can clean that up.”
The Seahawks can certainly clean up things in the margins, but to an extent, its beyond their control with the 6-7 John Bowen being the best option at the five spot.
CAA opponents are feasting around the basket, averaging 39 points in the paint. Compounding the issue is UNCW ranking last in the league in offensive rebounding, leading to an average of 13.3 second-chance points per game.
Finishing just a few more possessions is truly the difference between 1-5, 3-3 or 5-1 in the CAA.
The Big Picture
UNCW was supposed to be dead in the water without Jaylen Sims, but despite losing its leading scorer, had opportunities to win two games against what might be the best team in the league.
The defense isn’t good and likely won’t get much better unless a few guys magically grow a few inches, but at this point, it looks like the offense is finding a groove with much-improved ball movement and the end of the 3-point shooting slump.
After averaging 9.9 assists in 12 games vs. Division I competition before this weekend, the Seahawks totaled 35 assists.
It’s encouraging to see that what can change, is being changed — and changed quickly.
After Saturday’s game, Siddle pointed out that UNCW was too passive in hitting the center of the zone, needed to show more fight and that Jake Boggs was missing shots because he was catching the ball flat-footed.
On Sunday, the Seahawks were aggressive in attacking the middle, fought back from 17 down and Boggs hit 4 of 5 from 3-point range on his way to 21 points.
Up Next
UNCW visits Elon (3-5, 0-4) this weekend.
The Phoenix, which has dealt with two COVID-19 pauses, was swept over the weekend by Delaware and dropped its opening series at Northeastern.
The schedule gets a little easier with Delaware and Hofstra and their talented big men in the rear-view.
“These matchups for us, when guys have these physical, back-to-the-basket scorers, there’s not of those guys in the country and we went up against two of the better ones in our league,” Siddle said.
With an easier stretch of the schedule coming up, it appears Shykeim Phillips could be close to a return.
“He’s progressing, he’s getting better,” Siddle said. “Hopefully soon, we’ll have him back to where we can play him a little bit, but I don’t have a timetable for it.”