Seahawks Make History, Win 12th Straight
UNCW rallied from an 18-point deficit to top Drexel on Monday night
UNCW 70, Drexel 63
During a streak where the Seahawks have defied probability, logic — and occasionally their coaches’ wishes — it’s only poetic that they saved their wildest comeback for a historic night.
Just 48 hours after climbing back from a 15-point deficit vs. Hofstra, UNCW dug itself an 18-point hole on Monday night before turning up the defensive pressure and clawing back for a 70-63 victory over Drexel at Trask Coliseum, setting a new school record for consecutive victories.
Jaylen Sims scored 19 points to lead the Seahawks, while Mike Okauru chipped in 16 points and seven rebounds despite enduring what looked like a scary fall in the second half.
Here’s what we saw from the record-setting Seahawks (15-5, 9-0) on Monday night.
Resilience
Never has there been a team less concerned with falling behind 18 points.
Six times in nine CAA games, UNCW has fallen behind by 10+ points, and whether it’s been a quick burst or methodical climb, the Hawks have ultimately ended up in the same spot.
“I can’t lie, we knew we were going to win the game the whole time, even when we were down 18 in the first half,” Sims said. “We said in the locker room, ‘We’ve got to stop getting down so early in the first half.’ That was a big emphasis but we knew we were going to win the game the whole time, no matter what.
“That’s just the confidence we’ve got, because we’ve been down there countless times before.”
After Drexel (9-10, 4-5) took a 31-13 lead with 6:22 remaining in the first half, the Seahawks switched to their fullcourt trapping defense, and thanks to an explosion of steals and Okauru buckets, cut the Dragons’ lead to 33-29 at the 1:56 mark.
The Seahawks forced five Drexel turnovers that generated 10 points during that stretch. Fueled by easier looks on offense, UNCW made 8 of 10 field goal attempts to close out the half and cut the Dragons’ lead to 37-32.
“It was just sticking to our gameplan,” Okauru said. “To start off, feel like we were kind of on our toes; taking a lot of contested shots and just not doing what Coach told us to do. I think we just stayed in it together, got back to what we were supposed to do and got the win.”
A look at each of the comebacks:
Jan. 12 Elon led 55-45 with 10:31 to play.
Jan. 20: JMU led 54-41 with 9:55 to play.
Jan. 22: Towson led 49-39 with 12:36 to play.
Jan 24: Northeastern led 24-12 with 9:22 in the first half.
Jan. 29: Hofstra led 22-7 with 10:11 in the first half.
Jan. 31: Drexel led 31-13 with 6:22 in the first half.
Baking up a Win
Grinding out these tough conference wins becomes much easier when you’ve got a tough, experienced big man to grab tough rebounds, protect the rim and do all of the dirty work.
It wasn’t a seamless transition for James Baker Jr. in Wilmington, who was asked to expand his role — particularly on offense — what was asked of him at Morehead State. In the early part of the season when Baker was more inconsistent, Siddle talked about him getting back to being that “Junkyard Dog” in the middle.
For the second straight game, Baker was an absolute menace in the middle, finishing with 11 points (5/9 FG), eight rebounds and two blocks — both of which came on shots that would have extended a narrow Drexel lead.
Per KenPom, his performance vs. Hofstra was the best offensive game of his career, while his overall body of work made him the game’s MVP.
After a slow start in CAA play, Baker is averaging 7.6 points, 4 rebounds, 1.4 blocks and altering countless other shots. Being a fifth-year guy, he also has a good understanding of when to shoot and when to keep it moving, hitting 14 of 17 2-point attempts over these past five games.
Defending Trask
With Monday night’s victory, UNCW’s defensive efficiency ranking moved up to No. 192 nationally — quite the step up from No. 320, where it sat on Dec. 13, 2021, the day after the Seahawks’ most recent loss.
Obviously, UNCW’s offense has improved mightily as well, going from No. 271 to No. 222 today, but every bit of success this team has had and will continue to have begins on defense.
Never was that more evident than when Drexel raced out to a lead early, hitting 11 of its first 18 field goals, and turned the ball over three times as UNCW provided little resistance as the Dragons drove the ball and kicked to open shooters.
Over the next 26 minutes, Drexel made 13 of 32 attempts from the field with 16 turnovers.
There was no major adjustment or epiphany on the UNCW sideline to cause the change.
“We started playing defense,” Siddle said. “I don’t know why we get off to those starts sometimes. Defensively, we’re not locked in. We get down and we know we have to get stops, and that’s exactly what they do. They shot 38 percent in the second half, and we battled. It was ugly, it was ugly — but sometimes you have to win ugly.”
Siddle had spirited chats with his team both in timeouts and back in the locker room at halftime, and eventually, he got what he wanted.
“That’s who we are; we’re disruptive on that end of the floor,” he said. “When we can keep guys in front of us and we don’t give up easy baskets, we can be really, really effective with our pressure. We didn’t think they could handle our pressure … I wanted our guys to get after them.”
If only UNCW could do it from the start, we might be able to save a little money on Tums.
“We got 12 steals, we turned them over a bunch, it led to some points for us, and we have to continue to grow in that area,” siddle said. “We have to do a better job in the first half locking down.”
Big Picture
With 12 straight wins, this team has entered new territory.
Think about the great players and all of the great teams we’ve had come through Wilmington, and consider the fact that none of them have accomplished this. Only one, the 2016-17 CAA championship team, reached 9-0 in conference play.
Not only do they have one of the nation’s top winning streaks, but the Seahawks also hold a two-game lead in the CAA standings and have a win against every team in the league other than William & Mary.
Pretty cool for anyone, but especially for a team picked ninth in its preseason poll.
You can’t help but be thrilled for the guys who stuck around when they had every reason to take a look around the transfer portal, and for the guys who came to Wilmington, believed in Siddle’s vision and wanted to be part of rebuilding something special.
Quotes of Note
Siddle on the aftermath of the loss at Jacksonville
It’s pretty special. I remember that 48 hours and it was a rough time for me, it was a tough time for me. I had a rough 48 hours, but I regrouped and me and my staff got together.
I’ll tell you what I did, I took the team out — when we came to practice — I took them out to the trophy case, and I talked to them about our team our first year when I was an assistant. I showed them everything; I showed them their record and we talked about that stuff, and I told them exactly what we were going to do: we were going to pick ourselves up and bounce back in a major way.
I didn’t know it was going to look like this, but man, those guys bought in and we’re playing some really good basketball right now.
Siddle on his guys understanding their roles and identity
They know who they are and I think that’s important for anybody out there, you have to know who you area and know your strengths and weaknesses. You have to sacrifice a little bit; everybody knows at the end of games we’re going to go to Shykeim and Jaylen Sims — everybody knows that. I think they settle in and they sacrifice and they know their role and they’re buying in, and it’s paying off for us.
Up Next
The Seahawks begin the second half of the CAA schedule on Thursday night at Elon, where plenty of good seats remain. Given the number of UNCW alums between the Triad, Triangle and Charlotte, there should be a great turn-out for this one.
The Phoenix remains a dangerous team.