As coach Adell Harris continues her work on turning around the University of North Carolina Wilmington women’s basketball team, she got a recent glimpse of what the team can become and a reminder of where the team is.
UNCW moved to 3-3 on Sunday with the team’s 61-57 win at Norfolk State. The Seahawks take the court again on Tuesday to face Stetson University at Trask Coliseum at 11:30 a.m.
The Seahawks earned an encouraging victory during the Thanksgiving Classic round-robin tournament it hosted on Nov. 27-28 before suffering a resounding defeat at the hands of Davidson on Saturday, Nov. 28. And while the Seahawks also dropped a road game to Virginia Commonwealth University on Dec. 2, Harris said she was optimistic that her team was finding ways to win close games.
“I like where our team is,” Harris said after the team’s win over Jacksonville. “We have to make sure our defense is tough. We’ll continue to improve offensively, but defensively is what we want to hang our hat on.”
In a season where Harris’ goal was to get its team to play to the next level, she said the team’s win over Jacksonville University showed that it was making improvements over last year’s 14-18 squad.
“It wasn’t pretty. In late November, the wins aren’t going to be pretty. A year ago, that team would have lost this game. And that team did lose these games,” Harris said. “But we found a way, stayed tough throughout and we stuck together.”
The Seahawks got a key defensive play and late basket to propel it past JU 51-49 at Trask Coliseum.
With the game tied at 49, sophomore guard Madison Raque made a steal and passed the ball forward to senior guard Shatia Cole who hit the game-winning jumper with 9 seconds left on the clock, moving UNCW to 2-1 on the season.
“I was confident in my shot,” Cole said after making the game winner against Jacksonville.
Cole led UNCW against Jacksonville with 13 points while junior forward Jordan Henry added 12 points.
While Cole and junior guard Naqaiyyah Teague were billed as the leaders on the team, it’s Henry, a transfer from Iona, who has been putting up some of the most consistent play for the Seahawks.
Four games in, Henry leads the team in scoring, averaging 13.8 a game. Against Davidson, she scored a career-high 16 points and tallied her third “double double” of the season by grabbing 10 rebounds. In the same span, Cole is averaging 9.8 points a game while Teague is contributing 9 points a game for the Seahawks.
“I think she’s making the most impact on our team,” Harris said of Henry. “She’s mature in how she handles her business. You can teach her, you can tell her exactly what you need her to do and she really tries to go out and do those things. She had to be patient, but she’s getting her opportunity.”
Henry’s teammates have also been noticing her contributions.
“Jordan has been stepping up, since the first game,” teammate Cole said of Henry.
Harris said her emphasis for this year’s team is defense, which she said kept the Seahawks in the game against Jacksonville when the offense went cold.
“I think Teague is the heart of our defense,” Cole said. “When she’s playing good, we’re all playing good.”
Harris said it was huge that the Seahawks’ defense kept them in the game by holding Jacksonville to 49 points.
“Our defense kept us in the game. I hope we can say that at the end of every game,” Harris said.
The focus on defense showed with Raque’s steal, which provided the key play in the win over the Dolphins.
“Defense has been a big thing that we’ve talked about,” Raque said after the game. “I saw an opportunity and I just took it.”
This year’s Seahawks will have to contend with a roster that will pose challenges for Harris, as it did in the Davidson game. With only eight players eligible to play, injury and fatigue can have an impact, as it did when sophomore center Rebekah Banks injured her ankle against Jacksonville, forcing her to miss the following day’s matchup against the Wildcats.
With Banks out of the lineup and Henry occasionally needing rest, the Seahawks at the time had no 6-foot-tall players on the court, partially contributing to the team being outrebounded by the Wildcats, 45-23.
Harris said she would have pressed Davidson more, but coming off of a game the previous day, her team didn’t have the energy levels needed to execute the more-grueling game plan.
“We’ll see how much they learn from it,” said Harris of the Seahawks 77-50 loss at the hands of Davidson.
UNCW will look to even its record when it travels to Norfolk State on Sunday, Dec. 13.
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