6:51 p.m. Ware makes the second of two, UNCW’s Johnny Wolf misses a three, and Pellom is fouled with 2.1 seconds to go. Pellom misses both, but the clock runs out on the Seahawks’ last-minute hopes and GW wins nonetheless by a score of 76-71. Check out tomorrow’s issue of The Hatchet and www.gwhatchet.com for full coverage.
6:49 p.m. Interesting. Taylor misses both shots and Grant hits a three, cutting GW’s lead to 75-71 with 10 seconds left. Ware is going to the line for two. (Before Grant’s shot, Edwards had a strong block of a three-point attempt from Rendleman.)
6:47 p.m. Kromah makes just one of four foul shots over two possessions and the Colonials lead 75-68 after the Seahawks answer with a three. There are 21 seconds left.
6:45 p.m. Hollis fouls out while battling Downey for a rebound. Downey hits both and GW leads 74-65 with 50.1 seconds remaining. Hobbs calls a timeout before the ball is inbounded to talk things over.
6:43 p.m. Taylor connects with Edwards for a nifty alley-oop and the Colonials lead by nine with 1:07 left.
6:39 p.m. Edwards grabs a loose ball in the paint, finds Johnson at the perimeter, and the first-year guard beats Tomko down the court to score a layup. Taylor adds a short jumper on the next possession and GW leads 72-63 with 1:49 to play. UNCW calls a timeout and the Colonials look pretty happy heading into their huddle.
6:37 p.m. Tomko can’t catch up to a pass in the backcourt, which Johnson corrals and puts in for a three in transition to put the Colonials ahead 68-63 just inside of the three-minute mark.
6:35 p.m. Ware with a reverse layup, Hollis with a jumper near the top of the key, and GW leads 66-63 with 3:19 on the clock. This has become one heck of a game and Hollis, relegated to the bench for most of the game due to foul trouble, has really made his minutes count thus far down the stretch.
6:32 p.m. UNCW’s Ahmad Grant answers with a three of his own to regain the lead, but Hollis is fouled and hits one of two shots to tie it with 4:35 left.
6:30 p.m. Johnson drains a three, the Seahawks travel, and Hollis adds a trey of his own to give GW a 61-59 lead with 5:20 to play.
6:29 p.m. Hollis misses a pair of free throws but grabs a loose ball after Ware loses possession following the rebound. Hollis calls timeout while on the floor and the Colonials retain possession with 6:23 to play.
6:27 p.m. Pellom pins a Rendleman shot against the glass in transition, but is called for a foul during the put-back. Rendleman misses the first but hits the second. Hollis then replaced Pellom in the lineup and Opoku comes in for Edwards. UNCW leads 59-55 with 6:30 to go.
6:25 p.m. A very impressive defensive stand from Edwards just now, who altered a shot with his hands in the air and then swatted a ball out of the key and toward the perimeter. UNCW still leads 58-55 with 7:06 left.
6:18 p.m. While Rendleman sets up for a pair of free throws, Bynes is sternly warned by an official not to speak and seemed pretty surprised by the reprimand. Rendleman hits the first and misses the second, then Bynes is called for an offensive push while setting up the offense. No more than 10 seconds later, King is whistled for a non-shooting foul in the backcourt while defending the dribbler with his hands in the air.
6:16 p.m. With 9:02 to play and GW down by one basket, a four-foul Hollis returns to the court.
6:12 p.m. Pellom tips in a missed free throw from Ware (who had hit the first) and suddenly the Colonials trail by just two inside of the 11-minute mark.
6:08 p.m. Bynes hits it and the Seahawks call a timeout while trying to inbound the ball.
6:05 p.m. On the other end, Bynes drains a floater over a defender and is fouled in the process. He’ll shoot a free throw after a break at the 11:23 mark.
6:04 p.m. Freshman Bryan Bynes is whistled for two fouls on one possession, the second of which sends Downey to the line, where he misses the front end of a one-and-one. UNCW leads 51-43 with 12:22 to play.
5:59 p.m. Kromah and Pellom run a two-on-one break off an Edwards block of Tomko. Pellom’s dunk attempts misses, but he is fouled and hits both shots. The hometown boy now has eight points.
5:55 p.m. A whistle is blown during a loose-ball scramble and the foul is on… Hobbs. Tomko hits one of two free throws, then gets a traditional three-point play when he is fouled by King on a breakaway layup.
5:51 p.m. Hollis re-enters the game and about 30 seconds later, as he and Ware trap a Seahawk ballhandler, he is whistled for his fourth personal foul and removed from the game. He’s now got four fouls in four minutes and UNCW leads 45-38 with 15:56 left in the game.
5:46 p.m. Kromah sneaks around his man to steal the ball in the backcourt and then dishes to Taylor, who is fouled while shooting. Taylor banked in the first free throw and had the second rattle out one minute into the second half of play.
5:32 p.m. The Seahawks add a buzzer-beating put-back to head into the break up 41-32, answering GW’s small scoring surge with enough points for a relatively cushy lead at the break. Taylor and Kromah lead the Colonials with seven points apiece with seven GW players tied for the rebounding lead with two. Taylor is the only Colonial with more than one steal and assist, having two of each.
All told, it was not as bad of a half as it might have been considering Hollis and Opoku were reduced to complete non-factors by getting in early foul trouble. Some of the freshmen – Kromah in particular – stepped up to key a small comeback that kept the Colonials within range and Edwards held his own in the post for the most part. If GW’s big men can stay on the court and the Colonials can stop leaving Seahawks open on the perimeter for three-pointers, they have a chance to get right back in it and make a push in the second half.
5:23 p.m. Wholesale changes for GW, as Taylor, Bynes, Kromah, Pellom, and Katuka enter the game together. Interesting.
5:19 p.m. We’ve got a game. The pace and intensity seems to have picked up on the GW side and the Colonials now trail 30-25 with 3:03 to play in the half. Freshman Dwayne Smith had a very nice lay-in off the glass after driving from the three-point line on the last possession.
5:15 p.m. Kromah scores twice more, first cleaning up a miss by Katuka and then on a layup off a high post screen, and GW is now only trailing 27-21. There are five minutes left before the break.
5:12 p.m. Kromah is fouled while shooting from mid-range, but makes the shot nonetheless for the first field goal in what felt like weeks. He hits the free throw as well to make it 24-17 UNCW with 6:30 to play in the half.
5:08 p.m. Hey, look! Another foul, Taylor’s second and GW’s tenth. There was an odd non-reaction to this by everyone in attendance and those on the floor, as it seemed like everybody just kind of looked around in confusion as to which team it was on and why. Then some students came out to ride bikes and shoot layups during a timeout.
5:07 p.m. The foul tally, once 6-2 in UNCW’s favor, is now even at nine apiece after GW draws consecutive charges (King and then Pellom) and Kromah is fouled while driving. The fans are not happy with the calls and are likening them to bovine waste. The Seahawks lead 23-14 with 7:48 left until halftime.
4:59 p.m. Official timeout after another foul – the first, surprisingly, in almost two minutes – that will send Ware to the line when the break is done. The Colonials trail 23-12 now, with their last two baskets coming when Taylor bounced a pass to Johnson for a backdoor layup and Taylor got a steal near midcourt and broke away for an uncontested layup. There’s 10:18 remaining in the first half.
4:56 p.m. Downey drives, scores, and is fouled, missing the free throw; on the other end, GW is called for a travel. There have been 14 fouls and I don’t know how many other whistles in the game’s first eight minutes.
4:53 p.m. It gets worse. Hollis re-entered the game, drove to the basket, collided with a defender, and was called for his third personal foul of the game. He went back to the bench with 13:12 left in the first.
4:51 p.m. Not a good trio of possessions for GW there. Tomko, dribbling idly as the shot clock was about to expire, chucked up a long three and hit it, then Edwards was whistled for a three-second violation on the other end. Downey hit a third three on the ensuing possession and the Sehawks lead 17-6 with 13:45 to play in the half.
4:46 p.m. Senior Hermann Opoku picks up his second personal foul – GW’s sixth – at the 16:17 mark and is replaced by redshirt sophomore Jabari Edwards. Hollis and Opoku are now both out of the game with two fouls apiece. Twenty-one seconds later Montez Downey drains his second straight three to put the Seahawks ahead 11-4. GW head coach Karl Hobbs took a timeout in response.
4:40 p.m. Freshman David Pellom, a Wilmington native, subs into the game and the crowd gives a pretty big cheer, some of them standing. I thought it was because of him at first but Tomko just came into the game for the Seahawks at the same time, so that probably explains it. UNCW leads 5-4 with 16:48 to play in the half.
4:38 p.m. Timeout GW after the Seahawks take a 5-2 lead on a put-back dunk from freshman Keith Rendleman. Hollis is on the bench now, having been replaced by sophomore Aaron Ware.
4:36 p.m. Hollis, who scored on GW’s opening possession, picks up his second foul of the game at the 18:18 mark in the first half. The game has already featured five personal fouls and a traveling call. UNCW leads 3-2.
4:32 p.m. The Seahawks lineup is indeed Tomko-less, so it would appear they will be without the services of arguably their two best players this afternoon.
4:30 p.m. Starters: sophomore Tony Taylor, freshman Lasan Kromah, senior Damian Hollis, freshman Tim Johnson, and junior Joseph Katuka.
4:26 p.m. Still a few minutes from the tip, but injured freshman center Daymon Warren is in uniform and participating fully in layup lines. Last I heard he was still expected to miss some time after injuring his finger about six weeks ago – at last week’s media day, Hobbs said he still wasn’t involved in drills – but he’s at least healthy enough to shoot around with everyone.
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So here we are. It’s a beautifully warm afternoon here in Wilmington, N.C., which is irrelevant to those not here and the basketball about to be played. The Colonials and host Seahawks are both sooting around with just under 14 minutes until opening tip.
This will be the Seahawks’ first home game after dropping their season-opener 79-68 at Appalachian State Friday. Preseason all-conference second team pick Chad Tomko missed the game due to injury and 6-foot-9 center John Fields, who led the team with 21 points and seven rebounds in the game, earned a flagrant foul call and was automatically suspended for today’s contest per Colonial Athletic Association rules. If Tomko is still too injured to play, it would certainly appear to be a favorable matchup for GW.
This game is being played under slightly different circumstances than the last time these two teams met, when a nationally-ranked GW team made a huge second-half comeback to knock off the Seahawks in the first round of the 2006 NCAA tournament. Now UNC-Wilmington is coming off of a seven-win season and was picked last in its conference while GW has won 19 games over the past two years.
I’ll have your starting lineups as soon as they’re announced and be back with updates throughout the game – and maybe warmups and halftime too.
