Thunder, Struck: UNCW hits eight FTs to close out 70-69 win over Marshall
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WWAY) — In their biggest home test of the season so far, UNCW men’s basketball pulled off an improbable 70-69 comeback win over Marshall on Wednesday.
The Thundering Herd looked like they were going to hand the Seahawks their first loss at Trask Coliseum this year when a three-pointer put them up with around 1:40 remaining. However, four of their players fouled out and the visitors were assessed a late technical foul. Those issues resulted in eight free throw attempts. UNCW made all of them to pull ahead before defending the final possession for the visitors.
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
Head Coach Takayo Siddle says Marshall deserved to win, but will gladly take the victory despite some highs and lows.
“Toughness, a lack of toughness,” Siddle said. “Our defensive physicality and awareness, communication was really off. Credit to Marshall, they run that stuff really fast. They’re a really good offensive team. We talked about that. But I just didn’t think that toughness standpoint, physicality standpoint, I don’t think we had it tonight, but we did enough things to win the game.”
Nolan Hodge, Patrick Wessler and Greedy Williams were among the Seahawks who went a perfect 8-8 from the line at the end. They were 21-31 as a team before that, which was less than 70-percent. However, they had all the confidence in the world they would knock down every single one when it mattered most. Hodge’s final attempt proved to be the game-winner with 19 seconds to go.
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
“We make 150 a day, so you trust your work,” Hodge said. “I’m at the line, telling myself ‘I shoot these every day, there’s no difference right now.’ The trust in my teammates and the staff, everybody believes in you. You got to have that belief in yourself.”
“We put in the work every day,” Wessler said. “Didn’t really feel that much different. To be honest, I don’t think it’s that much on an anomaly at all. It’s just what we want to do as a team. We put the work in before we get there.”
(Photo: Colton Emswiler/WWAY)
Wilmington extends their win streak to seven games. This is the fourth time in five years they have had a win streak that long. All the others went at least nine.
UNCW’s next two home games will be on Saturdays. Those being December 20 and 27. Watch both of those games on WWAY’s The CW channel in the early afternoon.
Click here to see the box score from Wednesday’s game.
