A look back at UNCW’s CAA title, celebration

BALTIMORE, MD (WWAY) — The UNCW men’s basketball team woke up in Baltimore Tuesday morning as CAA Tournament Champions. After a long bus ride home, the next stop is the NCAA Tournament.

Chris Flemmings has kinda been the go-to guy this season for UNCW. Kevin Keatts was not afraid to let Flemmings do his thing against Hofstra. Flemmings scored 19 points on Monday night, and he ended up being named the MVP of the CAA Tournament.

“If there’s time on the clock, we never believe that we’re out of a game,” Flemmings said after the championship win. “We’re gonna fight and give it everything we’ve got. After halftime we come out, score is 0-0, it’s a whole new game. ”

Senior Craig Ponder brought his A game. Ponder made an array of shots in the second half. In fact he finished with a team high 20 points, but a play late in the game involving Ponder had more than its fair share of controversy. It was bang-bang with the game tied at the end of regulation.  So Hofstra and UNCW ended up going to OT.

“Everybody on our team has heart,” Ponder said. “We never give up. We never fold. It feels good to be champions.”

Everything UNCW threw up in OT went in, including a three-pointer from Denzel Ingram to ice the game and lead to an 80-73 CAA Championship victory and the ensuing celebration at Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore.

“It’s a great win. We’re excited,” UNCW center C.J. Gettys said. “Lots of special guys on this team. This one’s for Dylan Sherwood and Craig Ponder.”

Senior forward Kevin Hickson said, “You can never feel anything like it, it’s unbelievable. Together we got this. Together we got this.”

The conference championship and NCAA berth are the first for the Seahawks under Keatts, who is in his second season as head coach.

“My satisfaction is being able to see these guys prosper,” Keatts said after the game. “You gotta give credit to those guys, they did a tremendous job of executing and following game plan. Certainly we came out on top.”

Selection Sunday is now five nights away. That’s when we’ll find out who UNCW will play and where they will go in the NCAA field of 68.