High-scoring Hawks hold off Campbell

The UNC Wilmington women's basketball team took on Campbell University on Saturday afternoon in a non-conference rivalry game. After building a big first half lead, the Seahawks eased up, but eventually held off the Camels in the second half to win 79-73.

The victory was the Seahawks' fourth in their past five games, and it was their third consecutive win against Campbell. UNCW came out of the gate slow, but after a quick timeout from coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, the Seahawks caught fire. They connected on 54 percent of their shots in the first half, including 6-of-11 shooting from three-point range.

"We played really well in the first half," Cooper-Dyke said. "We were very dynamic rebounding the ball, running our fast break, balancing the fast break with half court execution. I thought we did an excellent job in the first half."

The Seahawks had a commanding 46-31 lead heading into halftime, and it looked as if UNCW would run away with the game. However, Campbell started the second half with a 14-2 run to trim the deficit.

"In the second half, Campbell started changing defenses on us," Cooper-Dyke said. "We weren't sure if they were playing man or zone and that threw us off, and we had a tough time executing."

As hot as the Seahawks were in the first half, they were just as cold in the second half, allowing their lead to slip down to four points with less than a minute left. The team shot just 18 percent in the second half, and struggled mightily with ball security and rebounding. Campbell scored 20 points off turnovers and converted 15 second-chance points.

"It was a matter of us giving Campbell second and third looks at the basket." Cooper-Dyke said. "It wasn't a problem with our bigs per se; it was a problem with our mentality. We have to have the mentality that our defense ends with the ball. That's when defense ends, not with a missed shot."

UNCW received strong performances from sophomore guard Alisha Andrews and junior forward Karneshia Garrett. Andrews poured in a game-high 18 points and dished out eight assists, while Garrett added 11 points and 13 rebounds. Tawanna Lee and Jessica Freeman also chipped in 17 and 12 points, respectively.

With exams coming this week, the Seahawks have a six-day layoff until they travel to Charleston Southern, Dec. 16.

"We're going to work on rebounding and we're going to run," Cooper-Dyke said. "We're going to run for all of these turnovers and run for not rebounding. Hopefully that will spark the interest in rebounding and boxing out."