Seahawks Survive Melee with Monmouth
UNCW's toughness and grit took a major step forward on Thursday night.
UNCW 69, Monmouth 56
Box Score | Siddle Postgame | Harden-Hayes, McGriff, Phillips Postgame
Since it felt like the Seahawks had last played a game in Trask Coliseum during the Brad Brownell era, it was only right UNCW paid homage with an old-school CAA battle reminiscent of when the program hung some of its first banners.
Returning home from a month-long roadtrip, UNCW dug in its heels and withstood a physical onslaught from a Monmouth team intent on bullying the Seahawks on their own floor, delivering a much-needed victory over the Hawks on Thursday night.
Shykeim Phillips scored 14 of his 16 points over the final 11 minutes to help UNCW get its first CAA win of the season, while Khamari McGriff set new career highs with 9 points and 9 rebounds in 26 minutes.
Two more Seahawks (10-5, 1-2 CAA) got into double figures, with Maleeck Harden-Hayes adding 14 points and 7 rebounds while Trazarien White earned every bit of his 14 points and 8 rebounds.
Here’s what we learned UNCW snapped its three-game losing streak with a victory that was only lacking a bloody John Goldsberry.
Fighting Back
Drexel, Towson and Monmouth are all a little different, but at their core, all three teams build on a foundation of physicality, toughness and grit.
Before Thursday night, how UNCW had handled that physicality had been a mixed bag — a solid start at Drexel before fading and allowing the Dragons to impose their will led to more fight at Towson, but ultimately, the Seahawks weren’t able to grind out key stops in that game.
That wasn’t going to fly on Thursday night.
“We knew they would come in here and try to bully us and push us around, and that’s the first couple of things we talked about with our guys: how tough, and how physical and how hard they compete,” UNCW coach Takayo Siddle said. “If we didn’t bring that with us to the game, then we wouldn’t have a chance.”
The photo up top was chosen intentionally, as was this one. Just a couple of the numerous examples of how hard both teams were fighting out there.
Thankfully, it was an ACC-level officiating crew that was fairly consistent with the contact they were allowing (up to felony assault, basically) on both ends.
For better or worse, the bailout calls weren’t coming for anyone, which meant that it was going to be decided in the paint rather than from the free throw line. That’s a fair fight.
And damn, did the Seahawks fight.
McGriff delivered with his best game as Seahawk (more on that momentarily), while White and Harden-Hayes both gave up their bodies to make plays.
Go down the list, and Donovan Newby and KJ Jenkins had steals and Noah Ross got 3 rebounds in 9 minutes and one tough bucket in the paint.
Monmouth’s 34.6 percent shooting night was the lowest field goal percentage UNCW has forced all season. The Hawks’ 16 turnovers were the highest number the Seahawks had forced vs. a D1 opponent since the season-opener at UNC Asheville.
All of that widened the margin for an offense that couldn’t consistently get in a groove until the last 12 minutes.
“We guarded, we had grit, we rebounded, we were tough,” Siddle said. “I think that’s what got us through the game, and we made big shots when we needed to.”
Monmouth hung around thanks in part to hitting 5 of 15 3-point attempts in the first half, but for the most part, Siddle was pleased with how the Seahawks defended an offense led by one of CAA’s best scorers, Xander Rice, who finished with 26 points on 7 of 16 shooting.
Rice, often utilized off screens and handoffs, just knocked down a few with a hand in his face.
“I thought we guarded all of that the right way,” Siddle said. “I don’t think we gave up many clean looks; I thought we were right there challenging the shot.”
The Crime Dog
While McGruff was a polite, helpful detective dog in a trenchcoat, McGriff was more on the side of junkyard dog on Thursday night — something the Seahawks have needed in that spot all season.
It’s been a rollercoaster season for everyone who plays the five spot — McGriff, Eric Van Der Heijden and Nick Farrar.
While McGriff had started every game, he’s averaging 12.9 minutes and was actually on the verge of being benched after a season-low five minutes at Towson.
Siddle said he was “a little upset” with McGriff and had dropped him to the scout team in this week’s practices — running Monmouth’s stuff to help the UNCW rotation players get ready.
“He didn’t hang his head, he didn’t pout, he didn’t whine; he attacked it with great energy, he helped us get prepared for the game,” Siddle said. “I slept on it for a couple of days, and I was going to bring him off the bench — I wasn’t going to start him — but something told me, ‘Hey, he handled that the right way and he’s still growing as a young player,’ and I decided to start him tonight him because he earned it — and that’s what happened on the court.”
McGriff has been a strong defensive player for the Seahawks for most of the season, really taking a leap forward during the Fort Myers trip.
Defense can be tough to measure, but Synergy places him in the 81st percentile while CBB Analytics has the Seahawks allowing 12.8 points fewer per 40 minutes when he’s on the floor as opposed to sitting.
The issue had been that the Seahawks were about 9.1 points worse with McGriff on the court, and he had only taken 11 field goal attempts in 11 games vs. D1 opponents.
On a night he set career highs across the board, there was no mention of numbers.
“Tonight, the message was just to outcompete our opponent, just to go, and that’s what we did,” McGriff said. “There’s always some things to clean up on, but I think my energy was there tonight.”
It’s really as simple as that in the center role for the Seahawks. If there’s an intelligent, athletic big man in that spot, its’ all about playing full-speed and letting the ball find them, whether that be on the pick and roll, dishes from driver when the floor is spread of grabbing boards on their own.
It certainly found him on Thursday, even as Monmouth did its absolute best to hammer him all night.
“I’m very proud of him,” Siddle said. “Now, the challenge is to make sure he can stack a couple of really good days on top of that to make sure we get another performance like that on Sunday.”
New Episode of #ShyTime
It had been a while since we had been fortunate to watch Phillips take over a game late in Trask.
Thursday night, it wasn’t even clear that was possible, as we hadn’t seen him getting involved offensively early as much since the hand injury vs. Drexel.
To make matters worse, first-half foul trouble made an unwelcomed return, and limited Phillips to just four minutes with 2 points on 1 of 2 shooting.
After resting for about 3 minutes, Phillips checked back in with 10:21 remaining and completely dominated the remainder, scoring 14 points on 4 of 4 shooting and hitting all four of his free throw attempts to go with three rebounds.
Siddle is used to seeing his senior guard get the job done in crunch time, but this week, he asked for something a little different.
“I spent a lot of time with him this week and I just kind of talked to him about stepping out of his comfort zone, and in order for us to take that step as a team and get back on the right track, he has to lead with his voice,” Siddle said. “Obviously, his game is going to speak loud, but we needed him to lead, and I told him when we need him the most, he’s got to step up like he always has.
“He delivered in a major way; he got us the separation we needed to finish that game off.”
Up Next - Sunday, Jan. 14 vs. Delaware
UNCW welcomes Delaware on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m. for a game that will be televised nationally via CBS Sports Network.
The Hens are off to a 2-1 start in CAA play, beating Hampton and Cambell while losing at Hofstra. Delaware also picked up an impressive nonconference win at Xavier.
As always, they’ll be looking to get Jyare Davis the ball in the paint. Thankfully, Jameer Nelson Jr. is no longer around to torture us.
Around the Coastal
Things were getting pretty weird around the league about 8:30 p.m., but ultimately, most of the favorites — except Hofstra — put things together and finished off victories.
Obviously, there’s a pretty steep drop-off at the bottom of the league, but Thursday night’s games were yet another sign that there are fewer teams that you’ll automatically pencil in as a win.
Northeastern 71, Hofstra 68
The Huskies led 42-21 in the first half before the Pride came out firing in the second half, rallying back to tie it at 51-51 with 10:07 remaining, and then took a lead with just under nine minutes to go.
Ultimately, Northeastern settled down and Luka Sakota finished off his 19-point night with a couple of big buckets late to give the Huskies the CAA’s biggest upset to this point.
Tyler Thomas scored 32 points to lead Hofstra, giving him three 30+ point performances this season.
Drexel 67, NC A&T 63
This season has been a struggle for the Aggies, but they’re looking a little better lately. Still, no one predicted they’d have a second-half lead over the Dragons, and in fact, had multiple opportunities to tie or take the lead over the final five minutes.
Drexel is off to a 4-0 start in conference play behind the league’s most efficient offense and dominant performances on the boards.
Towson 73, Stony Brook 64 (OT)
Hey, maybe Towson can shoot! After the unexpected hot shooting day against UNCW on Saturday, the Tigers went out and hit 10 from beyond the arc to hold off the Seawolves.
For the second straight game, Towson saw a lead slip away late, but this time, they were unable to knock down a shot at the end of regulation. Instead, they dominated the overtime period.
Delaware 68, Campbell 62
The Camels led most of the way, but the Hens finished on a 9-0 run over the final 2:24 to steal a win in Buies Creek.
Delaware overcame a poor shooting day from long range (6-22) by making 21 of 33 2-point attempts, en route to 36 points in the paint. The Hens also made Campbell pay for giving them second chances, scoring 15 points on seven offensive rebounds.
Charleston 80, Elon 62
No surprises here.
William & Mary 73, Hampton 61
The Tribe is 2-1 in the league and currently has the third best offensive efficiency in league play. If you predicted that, go use your predictive powers for something better.