For the first time in a decade, the University of North Carolina Wilmington Seahawks will be “dancing” in March as the men’s basketball team qualified Tuesday, March 7 for the NCAA tournament with their overtime win in the conference tournament final.
The Seahawks defeated Hofstra 80-73 in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament final in Baltimore, Maryland, avenging a home loss to the Pride two weeks ago that knocked UNCW out of sole possession of the regular season’s first place. The Seahawks shared the regular season title with the Pride, but came into the conference tournament as the second seed behind Hofstra after the tie breaker.
Under the guidance of second-year head coach Kevin Keatts, the Seahawks return to college basketball’s “big dance,” often called March Madness, where they will be one of 68 teams that could rightfully claim to be college basketball’s national champion if victorious. Keatts was named the CAA coach-of-the-year last week, an award he also won in 2015 after turning UNCW back into a conference contender in his rookie season. It’s UNCW’s fifth time claiming the CAA basketball title.
“I told everybody coming into the tournament that we were built for a tournament run,” Keatts stated in a UNCW press release. “We bent a little bit, but didn’t break. Every time they made a run and built a lead, it could have been easy for our guys to fold, but they didn’t. These guys just stuck in there and I’m so proud of all of them.”
The Seahawks, 25-7, fell behind the Pride by as many as 12 in the first half, but made a run in the second half and retook the lead with six minutes remaining before the two teams battled to a 68-68 tie to end regulation. But the Seahawks made their first four shots in overtime and outpaced the Pride in seizing the victory. UNCW senior guard Craig Ponder buried the three pointer that completed the Seahawks second-half comeback and led the Seahawks with 20 points.
UNCW won’t know when or which team they will play until the NCAA announces its tournament selection March 13. The Seahawks will certainly draw a lower seed in the tournament and would be playing for the chance to be one of the Cinderella teams to knock of a higher-profile college basketball team. ESPN’s college basketball expert Joe Lundardi forecast the Seahawks to draw a No. 14 seed and face 11th-ranked Miami, drawing a No. 3 seed for the tournament, in a game played in Brooklyn, New York.
Though the tournament has a slate of first-round games in Raleigh, the NCAA tournament usually doesn’t give low-seeded teams like UNCW the benefit of a home-crowd advantage. Other potential locations for UNCW’s game include St. Louis, Denver, Oklahoma City, Providence, Des Moines or even as far as Spokane, Washington.
UNCW wasn’t the only team to take a title last weekend. The Cape Fear Community College women’s basketball kept alive its winning streak in Region 10 tournament in Bolivia, North Carolina, defeating Louisburg College 70-68 to earn a berth in the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Tournament, which will be played in Overland Park, Kansas, from March 15-19. The CFCC men’s team lost in the Region 10 tournament final to Spartanburg Methodist, 75-72.
email [email protected]
