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UNC Wilmington Athletics

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cacok_wm
Bob Keroack/CAASports.com
63
UNCW UNCW 9-21
71
Winner William & Mary WM 12-16
UNCW UNCW
9-21
63
Final
71
William & Mary WM
12-16
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
UNCW UNCW 30 33 63
William & Mary WM 37 34 71

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | | Joe Browning

Seahawks Fall By Eight To Tribe

WILLIAMSBURG, Virginia – Junior guard Justin Pierce sank a key three-pointer with just a minute remaining and William & Mary shot 51.9 percent to clip UNCW, 71-63, in a Colonial Athletic Association late-season matchup early Saturday at Kaplan Arena.
 
The Tribe won its straight game and fifth in seven outings to improve to 12-16 overall and 8-8 in the CAA. The Seahawks lost their second in a row and eighth in nine games to stand 9-21 and 5-12.
 
Junior guard Matt Milon of W&M led all scorers with 19 points, including 11 in the final period. Junior center Nathan Knight collected 18 points and Pierce wound up with 14 for the Tribe, which scored 44 of its 71 points in the paint.
 
Freshman guard Kai Toews anchored four players in double digits with 17 points for the Seahawks. Sophomore guard Ty Gadsden chipped in 12, senior forward Devontae Cacok contributed 11 points and nine rebounds and freshman guard Jaylen Sims collected 10 points off the bench.
 
W&M, which entered the contest in fifth place in the CAA standings, celebrated its home finale and "Senior Night" by building a working margin early and holding off a valiant Seahawk rally down the stretch to square its conference record.
 
Leading 37-30 at halftime, W&M scored the first two buckets of the second half to extend the margin to 11 points and then boosted the difference to 12 points, 52-40, on Milon's turnaround jumper with 10:30 remaining.
 
But the Seahawks – using the long ball - reeled off 10 unanswered points to pull within striking distance. Back-to-back three-pointers by Jay Estime' and Jaylen Sims narrow the deficit to 52-50 with seven minutes left and the Seahawks closed within one point at the three-minute mark.
 
Trailing 62-60 with 3:06 on the clock, the Seahawks missed on an opportunity to grab the lead when the W&M bench was whistled with a technical foul on Knight's fifth personal. But Gadsden made just one of the two assessed free throws and Cacok misfired on two more freebies, leaving the Seahawks still one behind of the Tribe, 62-61.
 
But Pierce knifed through traffic on the next possession for a layup and then added his decisive trifecta to give the Tribe some separation. W&M scored nine of the final 11 points in the game to close out the season 9-5 at home.
 
The two teams battled to a draw over the first 12 minutes until the Tribe used a 17-2 spurt over last six minutes to jump out to a 13-point advantage at halftime.
 
After a free throw by Toews gave the Seahawks a 22-20 edge with 7:28 left in the opening frame, the Tribe reeled off 11 unanswered points to bolt ahead, 31-22. The spurt was the front end of the 17-2 rally that was capped by layup from Pierce that put W&M ahead, 37-24, at the 1:15 mark.
 
The Seahawks answered, however, with a pair of triples in the last 40 seconds to pull within seven points at the break. Sims buried a trifecta on the right wing and Toews sank a rainbow with 1.2 seconds on the clock to slice the deficit to 37-30 at halftime.
 
GAME NOTES
 
SERIES UPDATE: The Seahawks still lead the all-time series, 44-30, but stand 19-16 against the Tribe in Williamsburg.
 
TOEWS UDPATE: Freshman point guard Kai Toews wound up with 17 points and seven assists. He pushed his season total to 236 dimes, just eight off the school record and 15 away from the single season CAA record set by George Mason's Curtis McCants in 1994-95.
 
DAYTIME HOOPS: The Seahawks are now 4-4 in afternoon games this season heading into the 4 p.m. regular season finale at the College of Charleston.
 
FAREWELL FEBRUARY: UNCW closed out February with a 1-6 record. The Seahawks' lone win came in an 87-79 upset of first place Hofstra on Feb. 16.
 
TURNOVER PRONE: The two teams combined for 35 turnovers in the contest, with the Seahawks committing 20 miscues and the Tribe finishing with 15 turnovers.
 
KEY MOMENT: Behind 62-60 with 3:06 left to play, the Seahawks missed three of four free throws – two after a technical foul on the W&M bench – failing to cash in on a chance to rally from a 13-point deficit.
 
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS: Toews has led the Seahawks in scoring twice this season – both times against William & Mary (23 points on Jan. 24 and 17 on Feb. 23).
 
QUOTABLE: "Long story short, we definitely competed in the last 14 minutes. We had to use so much to get back into the game. The five guys we had out there at the end did everything they could to get stops. We made some three's in the comeback stretch that really helped."-UNCW Head Coach C.B. McGrath
 
NEXT UP: The Seahawks tie a bow on the regular season next Saturday, Mar. 2, when they travel to Charleston to take on the Cougars in another 4 p.m. contest at TD Arena.


 
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