Harvey, Bench Help Seahawks Steal One
UNCW finds a way to win despite a tough night for the offense
UNCW 60, Coastal Carolina 58
We all saw it coming.
The Seahawks, playing their fourth game in six days — with a day of international travel mixed in — were due for a letdown.
Fouls started piling up after the opening tip. Open shots weren’t falling. Bounces simply weren’t going UNCW’s way. It was looking like one of those nights that a coach could try a little of anything and it just wasn’t working.
“Over there, I felt lonely,” Coach Takayo Siddle said. “I felt like nothing was going our way; that was a crazy game, it just didn’t feel right.”
Then, Jamahri Harvey and Nick Farrar ran off eight points in 70 seconds, and the Seahawks were back in business.
A Shykeim Phillips elbow jumper put the bow on it, and the Seahawks held on to beat Coastal Carolina 60-58 for their fifth straight win on Wednesday night at HTC Center.
“Resiliency, mental toughness,” Siddle told play-by-play man Mike Vaccaro. “Man, that was ugly … but we gutted it out and came away with our first real road win of the year.”
In all, the Seahawks (6-3) got 38 points from the bench, including 26 of their 37 total points in the second half.
“They lifted our team up, and that’s what this team is all about: just picking each other up,” Siddle said.
Here’s what we saw on Wednesday night in Conway.
Finding a Way
Not even Virginia fans could find the beauty in that one.
As the teams combined to shoot 39 of 104 from the field, officials took it upon themselves to make things worse, whistling 42 fouls — rather inconsistently, too — over the course of the evening and limiting Siddle’s ability to play his preferred lineups.
Coastal committed 17 turnovers, while the Hawks had a season-high 14 giveaways.
Neither team got out much on the break, and the Chanticleers built their gameplan around mucking up the game by slamming the lane full of defenders.
Add in the obvious dip in energy for UNCW, and it was clearly going to be a tough night.
“It was very tough; we couldn’t get the energy that we needed and the execution we needed on both ends of the floor, I don’t know why,” Siddle said. “They had a lot to do with it, you’ve got to give them a lot of credit; they really packed it in and tried to force over the top of them, which they did a really good job.”
And despite all of that, on a night when the Seahawks just didn’t have it, they found a way to steal a victory against what should be a solid Coastal team.
Good teams win the games they’re supposed to. Great ones get it done on the nights they have no business winning, and that’s precisely what UNCW did.
It’s nothing new for this group, but it’s yet another example of just how much toughness and belief this team has.
Harvey Helping
The Seahawks have found themselves in tough spots a few times over this four-game stretch, and seemingly every time, Harvey swoops in to make a big momentum play.
Shortly after halftime, Coastal had opened a 32-25 lead before Harvey knocked down a 3-pointer — his first bucket of the night — to stop the run.
After Donovan Newby took a charge to get the ball back, Harvey set up in the corner. When his man provided help defense on a driving Shykeim Phillips, Harvey drifted out to open space on the wing, got ready and fired another 3-pointer on the catch.
The situation was becoming dire with Coastal opening a 44-36 lead with nine minutes remaining.
Yet again, Harvey drifted into an opening in the corner. When Jamarii Thomas delivered a great pass, Harvey was ready to fire and knocked down another momentum-shifting 3-pointer.
It was almost that same spot that he hit his final three of the night, finding a gap in the defense after Coastal had again stretched it out, leading 50-43 with under seven minutes.
Harvey hasn’t needed the ball in his hands to affect the game, and when he does touch it, he’s shooting it or passing it pretty quickly. He’s taking charges, diving on loose balls, playing solid positional defense and grabbing a few rebounds.
“He’s a guy that brings energy off the bench,” Siddle said. “He’s played in big games for us a lot, and I feel comfortable with him; I trust him. He was out there playing with great energy on the defensive end and his shots started falling for him.”
Thanks to his 4 of 5 3-point shooting performance Wednesday, Harvey is now 11 of 25 (44 percent) on the season.
After playing a total of 62 minutes over the first six games, Harvey has made the most of his 56 minutes over the past three games. He’s making himself indispensable as a 3-and-D guy off the bench.
Perimeter Improvement
This marked the first time this season an opponent has gone all-in on protecting the paint vs. UNCW, sometimes rallying four defenders to stop the ball.
Considering the Seahawks came into the game having hit just 44 of 153 attempts (28.7 percent) from beyond the arc, it was a reasonable decision — and one Siddle expected.
“We knew it, and our percentages will make you bait us into taking threes, but they really packed the paint in, and I knew we were going to have to make some tonight,” he said.
Luckily, his team answered the challenge by tying its season-high with 12 3-pointers on 29 attempts (41.4 percent).
UNCW was 5 of 18 from 3-point range in the first half before cashing in on 7 of 11 in the second half.
“In the first half, we didn’t shoot is so great, but they kept on stepping in with confidence and we knocked a lot of them down tonight,” Siddle said.
Harvey’s four led the way while Newby, White and Maleeck Harden-Hayes knocked down two apiece. Farrar and Eric Van Der Heijden each hit one 3-pointer.
It’s a big development for the Seahawks, who seemingly had better shooters than the early numbers indicated. Over the past four games, UNCW is trending up from beyond the arc, hitting 29 of 80 (36.2 percent).
That coincides with the arrival of more peer, mid-major opponents on the schedule, as those teams are having to commit more players to defend the paint.
Next Up
Finally, a little bit of a break.
UNCW will have five whole days before East Carolina visits Trask Coliseum on Tuesday night to begin a three-game (Dec. 10 vs. Jacksonville, Dec. 18 vs. High Point) homestand.
This will be the longest stretch the Seahawks will have spent at home since the season tipped off in Chapel Hill on Nov. 7. That means a chance to rest and heal up from this brutal season-opening stretch, while also giving the coaching staff a chance to truly make their first major adjustments.
The Pirates (5-3) are having some success under first-year coach Mike Schwartz, pulling off upset wins over Mercer and Toledo, but they suffered a surprising loss vs. South Carolina State on Tuesday night in Greenville.
ECU and UNCW last met in Dec. 2020, and the Seahawks lead the all-time series 38-29.