UNCW Men’s Basketball Continues to Surge

By Ethan Marsh, Reporter

Wilmington, NC - Every game from her on out this season is of the utmost importance for men’s basketball to secure a possible CAA conference championship. The Seahawks look to stay atop their conference and did so by defeating the Delaware Blue Hens 79-70 Thursday evening at Raiford G. Trask Coliseum in Wilmington. T-shirts blazing with “Tealnation” were handed shortly before the commencing of the game and this sense of community in the Dub brought an immense crowd of Seahawk students to Trask Coliseum. UNCW took this encouragement to their advantage and played like one of the best teams in the CAA conference.

---

The contest started off close as it was 14-13 early on. The momentum suddenly switched to UNCW, who made a 13-0 run behind 3 point baskets by Dylan Sherwood, Craig Ponder, and Denzel Ingram. This successful offense occurred due to Coach Kevin Keatts offensive strategy of moving the ball around to everyone on the team as he would say “Move It!”. One of the only flaws of the matchup was how the Seahawks committed so many fouls to the point that
Coach Keatts was dropping F-bombs on the sideline and displaying a furious persona to the players. The foul trouble did not keep UNCW from being successful as they brought a 10-point lead into halftime. The team came out in the 2nd half and displayed a steady offense to maintain a manageable lead and win by 9.

Chris Flemmings led the team with 17 points while C.J. Bryce was close behind him by adding another 16. Denzel Ingram scored 13 points and continued a 3-pointer spark as he scored 3 of them after coming off the best game of his career 5 days prior with 30 points in a double-overtime thriller against William & Mary. Craig Ponder came into this game with 990 career points only needed 10 more to become the 22nd player in UNCW history to score 1,000 points in their career. Ponder came away with 8 points, 2 points shy of the milestone. Ponder’s next chance to make that milestone will be in their next game at Drexel, this Saturday, January 23rd at 6pm in Philadelphia. 

This win improved the UNCW men’s basketball team’s overall record to 13-5 and conference record to 5-2. This continued the Seahawks recent surge of success and increased the win streak to 4 games. The loss for the Delaware Blue Hens was their 10th straight dropped game and worsened their CAA record to 0-7 and overall record to 5-13. The Seahawks will next travel to a snowy Philadelphia on Saturday to play Drexel and will next play a home game at Trask Coliseum Saturday, January 30th against CAA opponent Charleston at 7 p.m.