The University of North Carolina Seahawks opened up their 2015-16 season as they took on Milligan College in an exciting and skill filled game.

Coming off a 30-point exhibition win over Barton College, the Seahawks opened up the regular season Friday night with a 100-62 win over the Milligan College Buffaloes in front of a crowd of 3,520.

Playing their first of three straight home games to open up the year, UNCW started off quickly. Redshirt-senior Craig Ponder opened things up by scoring UNCW’s first five points. Redshirt-junior Chris Flemmings added a three-pointer of his own to give the Seahawks a quick 8-5 lead.

The hot start would soon begin to cool. Milligan began matching UNCW basket-for-basket, and then the open three was no longer there for the Seahawks. Milligan took a 16-12 lead at one point, but a hard layup by Ponder got UNCW back in the game.

Ponder then began to take over. The team ended the first half leading all scorers with 20 points on 7-9 shooting, including being 3-4 from three-point range.

“It was my teammates, really,” said Ponder. “It’s just one of those things. You see one fall, you see another fall, you see another fall and your confidence just keeps building.”

A 18-2 scoring run over the course of nearly six minutes further ignited the Seahawks, with the crowd beginning to get heavily involved during that stretch.

“I thought we had a really good crowd,” said UNCW head coach Kevin Keatts. “I felt like there was a lot of energy in the building. It was one of those games where you’re able to get everybody involved and we were able to play our style of basketball.”

UNCW forced 12 turnovers after 20 minutes while only committing four of their own. It was a tremendous improvement after turning it over 15 times in the first half against Barton.

“I think [the biggest difference was that] we moved the ball,” said Keatts. “The Barton game was an unusual situation for us where we turned the ball over entirely too much, but that’s why you play the scrimmages and exhibition games—to get those out.”

UNCW led 52-35 at halftime. The second half would be more of the same. The Seahawks continued to force turnovers while not committing any, reducing their turnover total from Sunday by 21.

While the home team kept scoring, Milligan struggled for the remainder of the game, scoring only 27 points in the second half on 8-26 shooting.

Part of Milligan’s offensive woes can be attributed to UNCW’s Chuck Ogbodo. The 6’9” junior from Nigeria finished the game with six blocks, wreaking havoc in the post by never letting up an uncontested shot.

“It’s a stepping stone to a great season,” said Ogbodo. “I’m going to build off of that.”

Freshman Devontae Cacok saw his first-ever action in a Seahawk uniform on Friday night after not playing on Sunday. The Riverdale, Georgia native finished with 13 points in his debut on 5-8 shooting while adding four rebounds and a steal for good measure.

“Not playing on Sunday was a little setback for me, of course, but it was good to see my teammates out there playing,” said Cacok. “I knew when I got out there one the court I would do what I do best. Do whatever I can for the team, basically.”