Reminder: Tip-off for Sunday's game has been moved to 1:00 p.m.
WILMINGTON, North Carolina – While most people will be focused on the big football game taking place on Sunday afternoon, Coach Adell Harris and the UNCW women's basketball team will have another thing on their minds – earning a Colonial Athletic Association victory over Drexel.
The Seahawks will welcome the Dragons to Trask Coliseum on Sunday afternoon for a 1:00 p.m. conference affair. The game will be broadcast for free on the Seahawk Digital Network via UNCWSports.com with Joe Catenacci providing the play-by-play. In addition, live stats will be available by visiting UNCWStats.com.
All fans attending Sunday's game will receive a free teal t-shirt with the new UNCW Athletics logo on the front of the shirt while supplies last.
The Seahawks, who are 8-12 overall and 4-5 in the CAA, will be trying to get back to their winning ways after dropping a tough 67-62 decision at William & Mary on Thursday night at Kaplan Arena. UNCW surged out to a 12-point lead in the first half before the Tribe answered with a 35-8 run to secure the victory.
For the second straight game, senior guard Kelva Atkins (Granville Central H.S./Stem, N.C.), junior guard Shatia Cole (Myrtle Beach H.S./Myrtle Beach, S.C.) and sophomore guard Brie Mobley (Winter Haven H.S./Winter Haven, Fla.) provided a large number of the Seahawks' points. After combining to score 58 points in last Sunday's win over Towson, the trio tallied 51 of the team's 62 points against William & Mary on Thursday.
Atkins posted her third "double double" of the season by scoring 17 points with a season-high 14 rebounds and six assists. Meanwhile, Cole tallied a game-high 18 points while Mobley contributed 16 points in her third start of the season.
The third-leading scorer in the CAA with an 18.1 average, Atkins has tallied 10 or more points in each of the last five games. She also leads the Seahawks with 76 assists and 37 steals. Meanwhile, Mobley has averaged 17.0 points per game since joining the starting lineup for the Seahawks' win over Elon on Jan. 22.
Coming off a 64-47 victory over the College of Charleston on Friday night, it will be a quick turnaround for the Dragons, who won seven of nine games in the month of January. Now 13-7 overall, the Dragons are in second place in the CAA standings with a 7-2 conference mark.
Sophomore forward Sarah Curran (Archbishop Carroll H.S./Media, Pa.) led Drexel to the victory on Friday night by scoring a game-high 18 points after making 8 of 11 field goal attempts, including a 2-for-3 effort from three-point range. She also added six rebounds and three assists as Drexel never trailed against the Cougars.
Curran is the Dragons' leading scorer with a 12.8 average and has scored 10 or more points in six of her last eight games. Junior guard Rachel Pearson ranks second on the team with an 11.8 scoring average has a streak of five consecutive double-digit scoring efforts after an 18-point performance on Friday.
Led by Pearson and Curran, the Dragons rank first in the CAA with a .773 free throw percentage. In addition, Drexel is allowing just 55.6 points per game, which also leads the conference.
Sunday's game will mark the 24th all-time meeting between the Seahawks and the Dragons in a series Drexel leads by a 15-8 margin. Drexel has won five consecutive games in the series after edging UNCW, 58-53, on Jan. 11 at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Senior forward Jamila Thompson (London, England) led Drexel with 12 points and 10 rebounds while Cole contributed 14 points for the Seahawks in a losing effort.
After Sunday's game, the Seahawks will be idle until Sunday, Feb. 8 when they travel to the University of Delaware for a 2:00 p.m. Colonial Athletic Association contest against the Blue Hens. It will be the first of two straight road contests for the Seahawks.
