UNCW Smothers Coastal as Trask Comes to Life
The Seahawks went 10-deep in a dominant defensive performance.
UNCW 65, Coastal Carolina 53
“They’re starting to get it.”
Takayo Sidle couldn’t hold back the smile as he talked about his team’s growth, moments after UNCW’s 65-53 victory over Coastal Carolina on Thursday night.
“They understand when we tell them to do something, what we’re looking for,” he said. “It just takes them a little time to actually grasp it and do it. I thought we did a really good job making our adjustments.”
After falling behind in the opening minutes, the Seahawks turned up their defensive intensity and rode the Trask Coliseum energy to an 18-0 run, building a lead they would never relinquish in their first victory over a Division I opponent.
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In his best performance of the season, Jaylen Sims came off the bench to score 13 points and grab eight rebounds, while Shykeim Phillips added 11 points, four rebounds and two steals and Trazarien White went for 10 points in his first career start.
Starts with Defense
Over the first two games of the season, UNCW showed flashes of what it could do defensively, but just how good the Seahawks can be came into focus on Tuesday night at Pittsburgh.
Thursday night, UNCW played its most complete defensive game of the season, forcing 14 turnovers — nine of which were steals — blocking five shots and forcing Coastal to shoot 33.9 percent from the field.
The Hawks caused havoc in the backcourt with Phillips, Mike Okauru and Jamarii Thomas all affecting ballhandlers, while James Baker Jr. and Amari Kelly took on the task of being the primary defender on 6-9, 250-pound center Essam Mostafa.
Despite the size advantage, Mostafa was 4 of 11 from the field for 11 points as multiple defenders collapsed to smother him every time he touched the ball. UNCW defenders did an excellent job of timing their help and making it tough for Mostafa to kick out to open shooters.
“I thought everybody did a really good job,” Siddle said. “When you have a post player like that, you have to defend him as a team and I thought ourguards did a really good job pressuring and not letting it go inside easy. I thought James Baker and Amari Kelly did an unbelievable job pushing him off the block and making him work for all 11 points that he had.”
A few times throughout the game, the Hawks held the Chanticleers without buckets for long periods — an 0/11 stretch that lasted over seven minutes in the first half as UNCW ran off 18 straight points, and an 0/5 stretch over the final 3:59 of the game to finish out the win.
Part of that defensive effort was rebounding, where the Seahawks hung around, as Coastal finished the game strong to end up with 44-41 advantage.
Baker, who ended up with nine points and six rebounds, ended up with the “Toughness Chain” for his efforts in the post and on the boards.
“That was one of our things we had to lock in on,” Baker said. “Coming into the game, Coach told us that they were going to go to the glass every time, so we had to lock in on rebounding. I think we pretty much did our job, with the exception of the last five minutes.”
Lineup Shakeup
White and Alec Oglesby in; Sims and Jaylen Fornes out.
“Tra does so many little things for us — going to the offensive glass, getting out and denying in the passing lanes — he’s so active,” Siddle said. “His energy is something that we needed in our starting lineup to get us off to a good start, and he deserves it. He’s been playing really well and he’s been practicing well.”
Aside from two different guys having their names announced, it didn’t really change much of how the rotation worked, as Sims played 27 minutes, White got 22, Fornes 19 and Oglesby 14 — all in line with where they’ve been so far this season.
It might have given Sims the edge he needed to break out, though, as the senior guard finally found an offensive rhythm after shooting 6 of 24 from the field over the first three games.
“He took room-and-rhythm shots and he rebounded the ball and on the defensive end, he fought, he scrapped,” Siddle said. “He was a leader all night and I expect that out of my older guy. Once some adversity is in front of you, respond the right way, and I’m so proud of him for doing that.
Siddle said he challenged Sims to affect the game as a defender and rebounder first, and allow his offensive game to build from there.
He certainly answered that call, defending with purpose and grabbing eight boards. Offensively, he was 4 of 10 from the field overall, with three 3-pointers while also doing a better job of attacking the rim.
“It wasn’t punishing him; I’m just coaching the team because I thought we needed a little shakeup,” Siddle said. “For him to watch the game and come in, I thought he was really productive.”
It Takes Everyone
In the end, 10 Seahawks played at least 10 minutes, while nine got into the scoring column.
One of the positives of playing this system is depth and opportunity, and this game was a prime example of why.
“I thought our guys did a really good job; our energy was there, we competed really, really hard,” Siddle said. “There weren’t a lot of mistakes and we did it as a team. Everybody contributed to that win — everybody impacted the game in some type of way to help us win that game.”
Jamahri Harvey, who played just four minutes at Pittsburgh, made a big impact in the first half, scoring seven points in seven minutes to go with two rebounds and two assists as he finished +15.
In the second half, it was White and Baker who emerged to make several big plays when the Seahawks needed them.
Okauru finished with three steals. Thomas brought up the energy level when he was on the floor. Oglesby knocked down a three and spread the floor. Fornes grabbed five rebounds.
So many little things that added up to a really nice performance.
Trask is Back
“What an unbelievable crowd that was,” Siddle said. “I thought our crowd really helped us get over the hump.”
It was a very strange season without fans in Trask, with microphones picking up every word from coaches during timeouts and giving meaningful games the feel of Saturday morning rec-league matchups.
The student section got into the game early, breaking out the old, familiar chants while clearly getting under the skin of the opponents, as Coastal guard Vince Cole was jawing with someone heading into a timeout.
And the explosion on White’s exclamation-point dunk with 1:43 to go?
That was vintage Trask — the type of environment worth several points in favor of the home team.
The importance can’t be understated in the middle of a three-game, five-day stretch that only allows time for the Seahawks to have walkthroughs on off-days.
“We always talk about Trask being one of the best home-court advantages in the country and the best in our conference, so our crowd gave us a lot of energy,” Siddle said.
Next Up
The Seahawks head north for Saturday’s matchup with Delaware State, which is 2-2, including a loss to Division III program Salisbury. The Hornets are in their first season under legendary Delaware high school coach Stan Waterman, who faces a major rebuild at a program that has gone 12-67 over the past three seasons.
UNCW won last season’s matchup 87-63 in Wilmington as 10 different players scored for the Seahawks.