Trailing by 13 points with 9:55 to play, UNCW turned up the pressure and got one tough bucket after another down the stretch, rallying for its seventh straight victory to remain undefeated in the CAA.

Here’s how it all went down.

Shy’s Setup

When it comes to late-game offense, UNCW coach Takayo Siddle prefers not calling a timeout if the Seahawks get the ball off a missed shot, following the logic that his team has the advantage when an opponent isn’t able to get back and set up defensively.

That’s precisely the situation that unfolded when JMU’s Takal Molson missed a free throw with 17.4 seconds remaining as Mike Okauru grabbed the rebound and brought it over the timeline.

Meanwhile, James Baker Jr. had stopped about 25 feet out to screen for Shykeim Phillips, who was able to shake loose from JMU’s Terrell Strickland and force a switch by forward Justin Amadi.

The junior guard was UNCW’s hottest player down the stretch, hitting 4 of 5 shots on his way to nine points over the final 3:12.

Since sliding out of the point guard role, Phillips has flourished in isolation situations, attacking defenders with an array of moves in the lane: a deadly pull-up jumper, straight-line drives, and perhaps hardest to stop, pivoting his way into tough finishes at the rim.

There’s no better situation that UNCW can dream up than Phillips matched up with a forward.

The Timeout

The 6-7, 220-pound Amadi did a great job of staying wide, moving his feet and forcing Phillips toward the Dukes’ help defenders.

Unable to find space, Phillips lost his handle, and in the half-second he lost control, JMU’s Vado Morse swooped in for what looked like a steal before Phillips, from the floor, knocked the ball away and got possession as Jaylen Fornes and Sims signaled for a timeout before Morse or Molson could tie-up the ball.

Take the Elevator

Here’s where it gets good.

As the Seahawks caught their breath in the timeout, Siddle conferenced with his assistants on the court and after seeing Phillips hit the deck, had already come to one conclusion.

“I talked to the coaches, and I said, ‘Let’s go for the win, let’s go for the win,’” he said.

He sat down on his stool with clipboard in hand and began drawing up what he believed would be the Seahawks’ final play.

The first version of Sims’ game-winner? A three from the top of the key, running through a double-screen set popularized by the Golden State Warriors, in which Sims would dart between two teammates, who then step in to “close the doors” on the chasing defender. It’s a thing of beauty when executed.

“We were going to go out of a box set to try to get Sims coming up through the elevator,” Siddle said.

With Jamahri Harvey as the trigger-man, Fornes and Baker would have served as the “doors.”

Here’s how it looked when the Seahawks set up:

The Chess Match

Just as the Seahawks got set and the official prepared to hand Harvey the ball, JMU coach Mark Byington called his final timeout.

Did UNCW’s alignment give it away? Was it a bluff just to make Siddle and his staff overthink the play? Should they stick with the elevator doors concept, or switch to another play on the off-chance that the Dukes had it scouted?

As always, Siddle talked it over with the staff, and particularly, sought input from assistant coach Travis Hackert, whose focus is on the offense and “special teams” sitautions, like end-of-game.

At first, they felt comfortable sticking with the original play, but then, Hackert mentioned something that piqued Siddle’s interest.

“I was trying to figure out if I wanted to go back to it and then Coach Hackert … he goes, ‘Hey, you want to run Detroit?” Siddle said. “I go, ‘Yeah, let’s run Detroit.’ So, it was a really late audible and he drew it up for them…”

As they emerged from the timeout, Hackert guided Fornes

The Jaylen Sims Shot

Although Fornes and Baker stayed at the elbows, the alignment shifted out, as Sims and Phillips went to the 3-point line instead of forming a box under the basket.

Here’s how it looked just before the official handed Harvey the ball for the second time.

Just as the ball touches Harvey’s hands, Phillips and Sims simultaneously take off and cross one another.

Phillips is the decoy, dragging his man completely out of the play while Sims screens for Fornes, then sells himself as a decoy, drifting away from the play for a second.

Fornes turns his hard cut into a perfect screen for Baker, who heads to the top of the key in anticipation of Sims springing back to life, and when he does, Baker gets just enough of morse to give Sims some breathing room on the catch.

“James set an unbelievable screen,” Siddle said. “Fornes clipped a guy first, to get Sims open. That’s a selfless play that we talked about; that was our number one key, being selfless…”

With one dribble, Sims turned the corner, got both feet down and elevated to get the shot off over the two JMU defenders — something he’d practiced plenty back at Trask Coliseum.

“We drew up a set that we run all the time in practice, and yeah man, it worked out,” he said. “I got the ball — I knew i had two seconds left, so I had time for one dribble — I shot it…”

As Sims came down, the UNCW bench simultaneously popped up looking like a sort of rennassaince painting.

Okauru leaned to his right, as if to will the shot in. Hackert raised one fist in preparation of a full-service pump. Siddle’s stance widened with every tenth of a second that ticked away, before sprinting toward midcourt.

All net.

Sims popped off the floor, ripping his jersey out of his shorts and mean-mugging the silenced crowd as his teammates gave chase. Walk-on guard Makoa Surigao pulled off an Olympic-level high-jump on his way to the pile. Siddle hugged just about everyone on the court.

Heck, it even looked like Sims stopped to catch the replay on a fan’s phone as he headed to the locker room.

And what a shot it was — as JMU defended the play as well as one could hope for given the amount of screening and cutting, as Morse fought through a screen to contest the shot, while Molson stepped out to get a hand in Sims’ face.

Good defense lost to an amazing shot, created by the flawless execution of a great play.

“(Hackert) did an unbelievable job; he was well-prepared, our guys executed it all the way through, and what a big shot that Jaylen Sims hit,” Siddle said. “Everybody that was involved in that play did exactly what they were supposed to do — the passer, the two screens that we set, the cutter, the decoy — everybody did what they were supposed to do.”

The Aftermath

Play-by-play man Mike Vaccaro’s voice couldn’t betray his smile as he recapped the game and welcomed Siddle on the air, and the coach didn’t try to play it cool — he was just as amazed as the rest of us.

“My goodness, oh my goodness,” he said, catching his breath. “These guys are unbelievable; they’re unbelievable.”

It would have been perfectly believable had UNCW just folded up the tent and called it a night in this one. After all, it’s time for a little bad luck on the road, and at times on Thursday, it felt like the schedule was going to finally catch up.

The Seahawks weren’t nearly as sharp as they’ve been in recent weeks, committing silly turnovers, missing open 3-point attempts and getting beat on the boards.

“We didn’t play our best game; we did not, we didn’t,” Siddle said. “We were out of sync on the offensive end, they were more aggressive, and they were more tough for the majority of the game.

“But, like our guys always do, they fight, they’re resilient, they battle through adversity. Those guys kept battling and Sims hit a miracle shot at the end — it was beautiful.”

Twice now, the Seahawks have rallied from a 10-point deficit with 10 minutes or fewer remaining in the past two weeks.

They’ve won seven straight overall, sit all alone in first place in the CAA, and just this week, has the same number of conference road wins that the program had in the previous three years.

Something special is happening for these Seahawks, and whether that means hanging another banner in Trask with a CAA title, we’ll know in about 45 days.

One thing is for certain, though: when we all get together to cheer on the Seahawks in March — this year or a decade from now — The Jaylen Sims Shot is one of those moments we’ll get to talk about forever.

“It’s an unreal feeling,” Sims said. “It’s hard to describe.”