Hawks Rally Again, Get 8th Straight Win
Phillips, Fornes came up big down the stretch as streak continues
UNCW 81, Towson 77 (OT)
Remember what we wrote after the absolutely insane comeback to beat James Madison on Thursday night?
Most of that stuff happened again, and the same takeaways apply. Come by Monday morni…
(Just kidding, kind of.)
The similarities are eerie, though: UNCW saw a tight game start slipping away early in the second half, and after falling behind by a double-digit margin, the Seahawks tightened up defensively and kept chipping away until Shykeim Phillips put them in a position to win the game and Jaylen Sims launched 3-pointer in the final seconds.
This time around, Sims’ shot didn’t fall at the end of regulation, and UNCW needed overtime to pull away for an 81-77 victory over Towson at SECU Arena, and in the process, took a two-game lead atop the CAA standings.
Phillips had 18 points and five rebounds to lead the Seahawks, while Sims ran his total up to 15 points with six clutch free throws in overtime.
Here’s what we learned on Saturday as the Seahawks escaped with their eighth straight victory.
Put it on the Board
When things were trending the wrong way for UNCW, Coach Takayo Siddle didn’t make major strategic adjustments and he didn’t have a boisterous rah-rah speech for his team.
Instead, he had a dry-erase marker and one word during a timeout.
“I grabbed the big board, and I wrote, ‘Tough’ on the board — big,” he said. “I went around the huddle, and I made everybody repeat what was on the board; I made them say what was on the board.
“If you’re going to win this game against a really good, well-coached Towson team, you have to be tough, and I thought down the stretch, our guys were extremely tough and finished the game out in a great way.”
It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the Seahawks fought back and rallied yet again, but this time around was a little different.
Facing the best opponent of the season, on the road and playing a third game in a six-day stretch, the law of averages suggested UNCW’s already-amazing run would be coming to an end.
Math definitely suggested it, because when Towson led 47-35 with 14:52 remaining, KenPom gave UNCW a 2 percent chance of completing the comeback.
At that point, Seahawk fans wouldn’t have been terribly disappointed with a loss.
Besides, this team has gone above and beyond with two straight CAA road wins already in the bag this week. It’s tough to win on the road in college basketball, much less when you’ve been traveling for several days.
Whether it was Jaylen Sims missing a few open shots or Mike Okauru — UNCW’s most impactful offensive player — picking up his fourth foul early in the second half, there was plenty of evidence it was just going to be one of those days.
So, at a time the Seahawks had every reason in the world to pack it in and be content with what they’ve already done on this trip, they dug down and found another gear.
Not only did they have the mental toughness to find a little extra fuel on an empty tank, but Siddle and the coaching staff knew what buttons to push to bring it out.
On Thursday night at JMU, he was visibly upset and delivering his message quite forcefully during one timeout. On Saturday, he took a different approach and got the same result.
That makes three double-digit comebacks in the past four games:
Jan. 12 Elon led UNCW 55-45 with 10:31 to play.
Jan. 20: JMU led UNCW 54-41 with 9:55 to play.
Jan. 22: Towson led UNCW 49-39 with 12:36 to play.
“These guys like to get down and then it feels like we’re better when we’re facing some adversity,” Siddle said, “But for me, I’m over there stressed out on the sideline. Our guys, they’re tough.”
Shy is The Guy
There’s plenty of credit to go around for Saturday’s win and the rest of the streak, but no one has more consistently delivered when it counts than Phillips.
When the Hawks had their backs to the wall, Siddle put the game in the hands of his junior guard.
“I just wanted to space the floor out and let him go; that’s kind of what we do,” he said. “I didn’t think their guys had the footspeed to keep up with him and we wanted to make sure we got him some room to operate, and he delivered once again.”
In all, Phillips ended up with 14 points, four rebounds and two steals in the second half and overtime, including a run of four straight buckets that gave UNCW the lead with 2:12 remaining.
Over the past seven games, he’s now made 17 of 29 field goal attempts and 13 of 14 free throw attempts in the last five minutes and overtime.
“He’s special; he’s a special player,” Siddle said. “I mean, nobody can guard him one-on-one if you give him space — nobody. If you let him to get to his spots — which he’s shifty enough to get to his spots whenever he wants to — and if he gets that shoulder into you, he’s going to make it pretty much every time.”
The Second Time Around
Jaylen Fornes knows what it takes to win a championship in Wilmington, and this week, he’s stepped up his game in pursuit of his second CAA title.
His second tour of duty had an inconsistent start, going from starting the first three games to going scoreless and playing 13 minutes vs. Norfolk State.
Siddle said they challenged the graduate student to pick up his game on the defensive end, and just like that, things have come together over the past three games, averaging 15 points and 4.7 rebounds, hitting 9 of his 16 3-point attempts.
Tied at 72-72 in the final seconds on Saturday, Fornes got himself in position to hit a big shot, and when the opportunity came, he didn’t hesitate for a second in knocking down the go-ahead 3-pointer.
Along with fellow graduate transfer James Baker Jr., who finished with 10 points, Fornes is delivering exactly what Siddle and the staff wanted out of their upperclassmen.
“We recruited some older guys onto the team and that was our vision when we brought them in to help us in the maturity area — our guys finishing games off and showing the younger guys how to do it,” Siddle said. “Playing with poise, playing with toughness, playing together.”
By the Numbers
Road wins are the single most important thing a team can do to improve its standing in college basketball’s analytics tools, so a three-game streak in a matter of one week can change things drastically.
In all, half of UNCW’s eight-game winning streak has happened away from Trask Coliseum.
A few numbers to illustrate how the Seahawks’ profile has changed:
A 38-spot improvement to No. 242 in the KenPom rankings from Jan. 16. The Offensive efficiency has gone from No. 256 to No. 235, while the defense is up from No. 286 to No. 233.
On Dec. 13, the Seahawks were No. 304 in the KenPom rankings, with the offense at No. 271 and the defense at No. 320.
A 113-spot improvement to No. 135 in the RPI rankings since Jan. 16; next closest is Sam Houston State, which has moved up 78 spots.
After a season-worst RPI ranking of No. 336 on Dec. 13, the Seahawks have moved up 201 spots.
A 33-spot improvement to No. 239 in the NET rankings since Jan. 16. The Seahawks now have a win over a Quadrant 1 team — something North Carolina hasn’t accomplished this season.
With three straight CAA road wins, the Seahawks have accomplished something in six days that previously took a little longer. Prior to this stretch, UNCW’s three most recent wins in conference play were:
Jan. 25, 2020 at Charleston
Jan. 5, 2019 at Towson
Jan. 3, 2019 at James Madison
The current eight-game winning streak is UNCW’s longest since the 2016-17 season, when the Seahawks had eight- and nine-game streaks. During the 2015-16 season, an 11-game win streak set a new school record.
Before that, you have to go back to the 2005-06 season for the last eight-game winning streak, while there was a nine-game streak in the 2002-03 season.
In each of those seasons, the Seahawks went on to win the CAA Tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Up Next
The Seahawks head further north to wrap up the road swing as they’ll meet Northeastern on Monday night in Boston.
Amid offensive struggles, the Huskies have dropped eight straight games overall and sit winless in the CAA at 0-7 — a shocking turn for a program that has gone 45-19 in conference play over the past four seasons.
Set to be played with no spectators allowed in Matthews Arena, this one certainly has all the characteristics of a trap game — a great coach and a program with a history of winning, a notoriously difficult arena to play in and the fourth and final road game of a weeklong trip.