January 16th, 2016

By Ethan Marsh, Reporter

Wilmington, NC - The UNCW Men’s Basketball team went into Saturday’s Matchup with William & Mary needing a win to continue their recent surge and have better placement in the CAA conference standings. History was not on the Seahawks side as the Tribe had won their previous 6 meetings against UNCW; the Seahawks had lost four straight to William & Mary at Trask Coliseum. UNCW defied the odds against them by edging William & Mary 97-94 in overtime on Saturday afternoon in an ultimate thriller. This was the first home game since the Seahawk student population started back to classes for the spring semester, and it was evident by all the students present in the crowd cheering on the team. William & Mary led a pre-game chant of their own as Seahawks were more reserved as they looked ready to play the game.The UNCW band built the crowd’s energy prior to tipoff, which prepared them for Saturday afternoon’s matchup as a key game in the CAA conference. The Seahawks took this mood setter to their advantage as the team kept up with William & Mary and the result was an overtime win. In the Overtime win, there was 9 ties and 15 lead changes as it had everyone on the edge every second of the game.

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Junior guard, Denzel Ingram, led in points by scoring 30, which included 8 buckets from 3-point range. He made some of these 3-pointers at crucial times such as scoring 6 of the first 8 points to start the game and a 3-pointer that gave UNCW the lead to go into halftime at 35-34. Ingram scored 2 free throws in the remaining seconds in Overtime to secure the win for the Seahawks. Freshman guard, C.J. Bryce added 20 points and junior guard, Chris Flemmings added 19. Jordan Talley led in assists with 7 and added 13 points. Senior guard Craig Ponder came in needing only 15 to become the 22nd player in UNCW history to score 1,000 points but only scored 5 in this matchup.

This win improved the Seahawks CAA record to 4-2, which is good for second place in the conference behind James Madison. The loss for William & Mary dropped their conference record to 4-2 and placed them behind UNCW by a tie breaker. This thriller of a win improved the team’s overall record to 12-5 on a current three game winning streak and improved the team’s home record to a 7-1 mark. The Seahawks will next play on the second game of their current two game home stand Thursday, January 21st versus Delaware at 7 p.m.