UNCW meets Marshall on Thursday night matchup

UNCW (8-2) at Marshall (5-7)

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The Seahawks are looking to head home on a high note.

With one game remaining before a brief holiday break, UNCW travels north to for its penultimate nonconference matchup of the season, meeting Marshall on Thursday night in Huntington, W.Va.

The Hawks and Herd aren’t likely to be around for a long time, but it should be a good time, as both teams are willing to push the pace and get buckets in transition.

Here’s what to watch for…

KenPom rankings for UNCW: No. 119 overall; No. 102 offense, No. 161 defense.

KenPom rankings for Marshall: No. 188 overall; No. 250 offense, No. 133 defense.

KenPom forecast: UNCW 76, Marshall 75 (53 percent chance of victory)

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Meet the Herd

Notable Wins: Dec. 16 vs. UNCG (72-65); Dec. 9 at Ohio (74-69).
Notable Losses: Nov. 24 at Kentucky (118-82); Nov. 10 vs. Radford (66-62); Dec. 13 at Toledo (88-87).

Personnel: F Obinna Anochili-Killen (15.6 points, 6.8 rebounds, 42.9% 3FG); Kamdyn Curfman (12.5 points, 3.3 assists); G Kevon Voyles (14.8 points, 3.4 rebounds, 1.8 steals); F Nate Martin (11.4 points, 9.9 rebounds, 58.6% FG); G Jacob Conner (6.8 points, 4.7 rebounds); G Cameron Crawford (9.2 points, 3.5 rebounds).

Coach Dan D’Antoni’s program is known for being among the fastest offensive teams in the nation, and usually, one of the best.

So far this season, they’ve got the tempo thing down at about 74 possessions (18th nationally) per game but rank 250th nationally in offensive efficiency, largely due to poor shooting — 29.8 percent from 3-point range and 47.2 percent on 2-point attempts.

Anochili-Killen has done his best to fix that, however, as the athletic wing can do a little of everything, knocking down threes at a high clip, getting physical in the lane and protecting the rim on the defensive end.

He’ll be fun to watch — but hopefully not too much fun.

Martin has taken 76 of his 80 shots in the paint, hitting 47 of them while Curfman has taken 94 of his 129 shots from beyond the arc.

Let’s Run

If Marshall wants to run, the Seahawks will be more than happy to oblige, as they’re 6-0 in games with 70+ possessions this season and scoring an average of 97.7 points.

Take away the three non-D1 opponents, and the Hawks are still putting up 82 points per game while shooting 46.4 percent from the field.

Remember when the UNCW defense was struggling to slow opponents down on the break earlier this season?

That’s no longer the case, as the Hawks have transformed their transition defense in December, going from a team that routinely allowed opponents to beat them down the floor off made baskets to one that gave up just three transition chances vs. ECU.

After giving opponents an average of 19 transition possessions per game over the first six, UNCW has allowed 8.5 over the past four games, including 14 against Kentucky.

Largely, it’s just been a case of getting coached up and being more aware of where opposing player are. Siddle said around the Kentucky game, he debated pulling one of the usual three offensive rebounders out, but ultimately decided to stick with his standard plan of sending three to the offensive glass.

Given the bench depth the Hawks are certainly built for it.

A Perfect Match?

What’s more fun than watching a guy like Anochili-Killen?

Watching a guy like Trazarien White, who is likely to spend a significant amount of time matched up with his Herd counterpart.

Both are listed around the same height, and neither can be defined as strictly a perimeter or interior player, but they’re plenty capable of doing damage in the paint thanks to their finishing ability.

It doesn’t hurt that both Anochili-Killen (6.2) and White (7.1) are among the nation’s best in drawing fouls, with White ranked 24th overall.

White might have a little more to play for tonight, as he’s coming off his least-efficient performance of the season on Saturday at Georgia Southern, scoring a season-low 10 points on 2 of 9 shooting with three rebounds.

Siddle mentioned a few guys had forced the issue too much in that game, made a point to say that they’d be cleaning it up this week.

Add in the fact that White has played exceptionally well in the high-possession games, averaging 19.3 points and 6.3 rebounds against D1 opponents, it seems likely we’ll get a bounce-back game.

On a Roll

Shykeim Phillips, Donovan Newby and KJ Jenkins have all run the pick and roll at an elite level this season, and Saturday, we saw something new as Georgia Southern looked to force a pass to the roll man.

The Hawks hit the roller 20 times on Saturday — easily eclipsing the previous high of nine this season.

Coming into that game, UNCW’s ballhandlers were averaging 17.3 possessions (vs. D1) where they kept the ball on the P&R. On Saturday, it was just four.

Marshall hasn’t seen much pick and roll at all this season, and particularly, very few opponents have hit the roll man against them.

They’ll certainly be seeing some tonight, so that will definitely be a factor in the outcome.

40 Minus of Focus

No doubt, the Seahawks made Saturday at Georgia Southern a little more challenging than it needed to be. Whether it was a winless opponent, the sleepy arena, or long bus ride, we’ll never know.

But we do know UNCW finds itself in another unique scenario tonight, as this 40 minutes is the only thing standing between players and heading home for the holidays — sometimes, their first time with family since the summer.

That fact has been a clear point of emphasis this week for UNCW coach Takayo Siddle and his staff.

“I always feel like at this time of the year that the team that wants to be there the most, the team that’s the most focused for that 40 minutes — and not worried about going home for Christmas break — they’ll have a chance to be successful in the game,” he said.

Tip-Ins

• UNCW has hit 10+ 3-pointers in three straight games.

• The Seahawks have committed five turnovers in each of the past two games, and rank sixth nationally with a 13.1 percent turnover rate.

• Phillips ranks second nationally with 36 points in 23 minutes of “clutch” time (game within six points, five minutes or fewer remaining.)

• Shemar Rathan-Mayes has played 34 minutes over the past two games, totaling nine assists and zero turnovers.

• McGriff has 15 points over the past two games, hitting all seven of his field goal attempts. Over the previous eight games, he had scored a total of 14 points.