The UNCW men’s basketball team’s team headed into halftime on Wednesday night trailing the College of Charleston by six points and thoroughly disappointed in its performance.

The players and coaches agreed the team didn’t have the right energy for a crucial conference matchup. The halftime speech from head coach Kevin Keatts was just what the team needed.

UNCW outscored the College of Charleston 34-15 in the second half and the Seahawks cruised to a 58-45 victory over the Cougars.

“It was a tale of two different halves,” coach Keatts said, “second half was totally great. We did a tremendous job on the defensive end. We got stops after stops. We were very aggressive. We took the ball to the hole. We got to the free throw line and fortunately we ended up with the win.”

The Seahawks looked like they were headed for a disappointing result against the last place Cougars. With 13:35 remaining in the game, UNCW trailed by five, but the game quickly turned on its head.

The Seahawks went on a 22-0 run that stretched over 10 minutes and UNCW opened up a 52-37 lead to assure the victory.

“Coach always preaches to us that if we play defense and your effort is up, the offense will take care of itself,” UNCW guard Jordan Talley said. “So that’s what we did in the second half. Coming out we wanted to defend hard, put pressure on the ball, and the offense took care of itself.”

The Seahawk defense was at its best in the second half, holding the Cougars to just 15 points on 17.4 percent shooting in the period.

The stellar defensive play sparked the offense for Talley and senior Addison Spruill. The two combined for 23 of the Seahawks 34 second half points. It was the second-highest scoring total for Talley in his freshman season.

“What’s good about Jordan is he doesn’t know he’s supposed to be a freshman,” coach Keatts said, “he’s playing in big moments and taking big shots.”

Despite struggling in the first half, UNCW successfully kept the game within striking distance for its big second half run. Senior guard Freddie Jackson scored 10 points and accounted for four of UNCW’s eight field goals in the first period.

It wasn’t the prettiest win for the Seahawks, but every victory counts in the race for a regular season Colonial Athletic Association title.

“I told these guys, any time you want to have the chance to win a championship, at any level, you got to win all types of games,” coach Keatts said.

UNCW (14-10, 9-4) remains one game behind William & Mary in the conference standings and tied with Northeastern in second.

On Saturday, the Seahawks will welcome Northeastern to Trask Coliseum for the homecoming game a critical conference game. Tipoff is set for 8 pm.