Drexel Dominates, UNCW Drops CAA Opener
The Seahawks offense didn’t do much to help itself
Well, that was a thorough whipping.
Credit to Drexel, for sure — they made a very clear statement about who they’re going to be this season, and why many really smart (hi!) people thought they’d have a shot at a top-three finish in the CAA.
UNCW, on the other hand, did very few of the things that made it a top-three pick by similarly intelligent (hi!) people.
The Dragons used a run late in the first half to pull ahead, and from there, never lost control in a 78-63 victory on Thursday night at the Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.
It was pretty straight forward, so this will probably be a little shorter than usual, but here are a few takeaways on the Seahawks’ loss in the CAA opener.
Fools Gold
Despite foul trouble and an injury scare with Shykeim Phillips leaving the game for several minutes, the Seahawks were seemingly in a good spot at the half, with Drexel (9-6, 2-0) taking 36-34 lead into the break.
UNCW (9-4, 0-1) had actually led 32-28 after Trazarien White hit a 3-pointer with 3:57 remaining in the first half, as the Hawks had hit 5 of 13 attempts from beyond the arc.
Four of the Seahawks’ next five field goal attempts were from beyond the arc — all misses:
(3:08) KJ Jenkins with a GREAT look from the wing on a well-executed offensive set.
(1:58) Nick Farrar with a decent look from the top of the key, but with Amari Williams coming out of the lane to contest, a drive would have likely set up an easy bucket in the paint or a kick to an open shooter on the wing.
(1:11) Trazarien White had Williams switched onto him on the perimeter. The shot clock was winding down, but there was time to drive the big man.
(0:35) Phillips and Farrar run a pick-and-pop that gets Farrar a wide-open look from the wing. Great shot, just missed it.
None of those four possessions included the ball reaching the paint (Farrar was closest on his attempt at 1:58, passing at the elbow) which lets an already-great defensive team off the hook too easily.
Despite hanging around at the half, Coach Takayo Siddle knew things weren’t headed in the right direction.
“Our flow offense, we just weren’t moving and cutting like we usually do,” he said. “We just didn’t have great energy overall, even to start the game. We weren’t adhering to the gameplan; we were just lucky enough to kind of stick around and go down two.”
“They went on an 8-0 run on us to get to that point (at halftime), and we were just all over the place, and that’s on me. “
Ultimately, the Seahawks would miss 12 straight 3-point attempts before Jenkins finally broke the streak with 7:08 remaining, but missed for more to finish off a 6 of 30 night from beyond the arc.
With the disclaimer that we understand teams tend to shoot more 3-pointers when they’re trailing, a higher number for UNCW doesn’t correlate with success.
In this season’s six wins vs. D1 opponents, the Seahawk are putting up 22.7 3-point attempts (38 percent of all field goal attempts) and in losses, they’re trying 26 per game (42 percent of shots).
Over the past three seasons, UNCW is 28-10 when it puts up 19 or fewer 3-point attempts and 24-13 when it shoots 20 or more.
Hey, Drexel is pretty good! And there’s a reason Williams been the CAA’s Defensive Player of the Year each of the past two seasons.
Combine that with UNCW not doing itself any favors, and the result is pretty rough.
Here’s what Siddle had to say about that in his postgame conversation with Mike Vaccaro.
Give all the credit to Drexel; they really guard you, that’s what they do. They’re really physical, they’re tough, they compete at the rim, they really pack driving lanes down, and we kind of played right into their hands because we were taking first- or second-side threes without touching the paint.
We did not adhere to the gameplan at all. They had a lot to do with it, but I think eww were very stubborn. We played selfishly, and that’s the result that you get when you play like that.
Offense wasn’t the only issue, because the defense offered little resistance to the Dragons in the paint. We’ll dive into that before Saturday’s game.
Injury Update
Despite taking a hard fall in the first half and seemingly injuring his left hand/wrist, Phillips returned to the game and played a valiant 24 minutes, but clearly was feeling some effects of the fall.
He finished with a season-low five points on 2 of 8 shooting, and tied a season-high with three turnovers.
There is some good news on the injury font, as Ahmard Harvey is nearing his Seahawk debut.
A graduate student who transferred in from High Point, Harvey put up some impressive rebounding numbers last year for Panthers, ranking nationally in offensive rebounding rate (14.3 percent, 32nd nationally) and defensive rebounding rate (22 percent, 128th nationally) while also providing some solid rim protection as a shot blocker.
There’s no better addition for this UNCW team than someone that can shore those areas up.
Up Next
The Seahawks won’t have time to dwell on the loss, with fewer than 48 hours before Saturday’s 2 p.m. tipoff at Towson.
“We’ve got to fix it; we don’t have time to hang our heads,” Siddle said. “We’ve got a quick turnaround for a really good Towson team that’s ticked off because they lost, and they’ll play us the same way Drexel did.”
The Tigers have won seven of the past eight meetings with UNCW, including overcoming a 14-point deficit on Senior Night at Trask last February. The past few games have been chippy, and as always Towson is going to look to set the tone with its physicality.
No better opponent for UNCW to immediately show what it learned at Drexel.
Around the Coastal
Charleston 73, Hofstra 61
Turns out, neither of Thursday night’s marquee matchups ended up close.
Hofstra had a 57-53 lead with about seven minutes remaining before the Cougars ran off 14 straight points, and that was that.
Bryce Butler gave Charleston 18 points off the bench, and Ante Brzovic had an efficient night, scoring 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting in only 20 minutes.
D-Stone Dubar went for 20 points and 12 rebounds for Hofstra, while Tyler Thomas scored 21 points, but needed 26 field goal attempts to do it.
Monmouth 51, Towson 43
Xander Rice scored 21 points to lead the Hawks in an otherwise defensive slog, as Towson shots 26.7 percent (16 of 60) from the field while Monmouth hit 32.8 percent (19 of 58) of its attempts.
All the cool kids are hopping on the Monmouth bandwagon. Join us!
Delaware 80, Hampton 53
NC A&T 76, Campbell 62
Stony Brook 62, Northeastern 53
William & Mary 77, Elon 70
Saturday’s Schedule
UNCW at Towson, 2 p.m.
Campbell at Hampton, 2 p.m.
Drexel at William & Mary, 2 p.m.
Delaware at Hofstra, 2 p.m.
Charleston at Stony Brook, 6:31 p.m.
NC A&T at Elon, 7 p.m.