The University of North Carolina Wilmington Seahawks faced their first NCAA Division I opponent of the regular season on Monday night when the Eastern Kentucky Colonels visited Trask Coliseum. The Seahawks were looking to prove they could beat a high-level opponent after coming off a 100-62 win over Milligan College on Friday.

They would do just that, winning 78-59 to improve to 2-0 overall.

Graduate student Dylan Sherwood led the way for the Seahawks in the first half, scoring most of his 13 points in the low post. He finished with 16 points and nine rebounds (both career highs), just one rebound shy of a double-double.

“We paid attention to the scouting report and just made a huge emphasis on offensive rebounding,” said Sherwood. “We didn’t think they were a great on-the-ball defensive team, and I think that just shows paying attention to the scouting report pays off.”

Redshirt-junior Denzel Ingram saw his first action of the season after serving a one-game suspension for violation of team rules. Ingram contributed right away, coming off the bench just a few minutes into the game and being responsible for 11 of UNCW’s 38 points in the first half.

“It felt a little weird at first [finally getting to play],” Ingram said. “I had to get into the groove of things. I had a turnover the first time I was out there, but it feels good to be back.”

The Colonels did a lot to help the Seahawks early on. They missed their first 10 shots from the floor, not scoring a basket until Jarelle Reischel hit back-to-back layups—the first coming at the 10:58 mark.

Redshirt-senior Craig Ponder, coming off a career-high 26 points against Milligan, followed up Friday night’s performance with 24 points on Monday night to go along with three steals and four assists.

But despite some great performances on the offensive side of the ball, Ponder continually mentioned head coach, Kevin Keatts’s emphasis on how important defense is in their style of play.

“About 75-90 percent [of practice is spent on defense],” said Ponder. “It just depends on how coach is feeling, really, and how many stops we get on guy. Sometimes we’ll just stay on defense the entire time.”

And it showed. Eastern Kentucky, a team that had 29 total assists in its season opener, was limited to just five on Monday night. The Seahawks were also able to force 19 turnovers that translated into 18 points on the offensive end.

“We wanted to turn them [Eastern Kentucky] into more individual players,” said Keatts. “Very happy with our effort. I thought our bench was tremendous; I thought we were able to run guys in and out and our pressure at the end caused a lot of problems.”

Now 2-0 on the season, UNCW will conclude its opening three-game home stretch on Saturday when Western Michigan visits Wilmington.