The UNC Wilmington women’s basketball team continued its ‘breakthrough’ season Wednesday, defeating Campbell University, 89-80, at Trask Coliseum and improving to 2-0 on the young season.

The Seahawks trailed the Camels late in the first half before tying the game at 41-all on a 3-pointer from sophomore Johanna McMillan with 47 seconds left in the half. Campbell never regained the lead, and UNCW finished the half with a two-point lead.

Campbell didn’t miss a shot until the 12:49 mark of the first frame, and sophomore forward Amanda Coffer broke her career-high of 16 points with 9:22 left in the half. Coffer finished with 30 points, shooting 11-for-17 from the floor and 5-for-6 from the free throw line.

“Every time that she shot the ball, I thought it was going in,” said UNCW head coach Adell Harris, “From where I was sitting in the first half and the second half, she looked like LeBron James out there. … I thought she was big for them. She made every open shot she had.”

UNCW inched ahead in the second half, leading by as much as 15 points with 3:51 left to play. Campbell’s hot start trailed off further into the game, and the Camels finished 22-for-45 (48.9 percent) from the field.

Despite having guards Amber Reeves, Shatia Cole and Naqaiyyah Teague foul out within a two-minute stretch with nearly five minutes left in the game, the Seahawks were able to hang on to start the season 2-0 for the first time in Harris’ tenure at UNCW.

As a team, the Seahawks won the turnover battle with 22 takeaways from the Camels, while limiting their turnovers to seven. UNCW also had a big day on the offensive glass, grabbing 19 offensive rebounds, which led to 19 second-chance points.

“I think this is such a huge win for our team, our program, our growth, the process of what it means to become a champion—that’s what we want,” Harris said. “I think this is a huge step in the right direction. I have so much respect for Wanda Watkins and the program they run at Campbell. They are a bunch of hard workers, blue-collar kids—not a lot flash out there, but a lot of toughness. We had to really take the game from them—they weren’t going to give it to us—so I’m really proud of our kids for stepping up and taking the game.”

McMillan was one of three Seahawks to score double digits, finishing the night with 17 points, breaking her previous career high of 12. She had five of the Seahawks’ eight 3-pointers, shooting 5-of-8 from behind the arc.

Senior Kelva Atkins turned in another impressive outing, finishing with a team-high 29 points, adding six assists and three steals.

“Kelva is the one who had it going from the start,” Harris said. “I don’t know how many points she had at the half, but I feel like it was 15 or so. You can identify early what they’re going to do with Kelva as it relates to attacking, and we didn’t see any change in what they were doing to Kelva in the 40-minute game. I don’t think there was any adjustment really made to stop her from getting directly to the rim. It’s easy for her to do that—it really is.”

After sitting out in the season opener against UNC Pembroke, sophomore Ryan Flowers made her season debut, coming off the bench with 7:31 left in the first half. Flowers was the lone Seahawk to register a double-double, scoring 13 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.

Last season Flowers started all 32 games and led the Seahawks in rebounding with 247.

“I feel like it was very important for me to make a statement,” Flowers said. “I had to go out there and do what my team needed, and I feel like I did that tonight.”

Entering the season, Harris had a combined record of 10-53 in her first two seasons as head coach. It’s still early in the season, but with a full roster for the first time, the Seahawks’ improvements are already noticeable.

After the victory, Kelva Atkins, the lone recruit from Harris’ first recruiting class three years ago, had a succinct answer when asked about the progress the program has made in her time at UNCW.

“One word,” Atkins said. “Breakthrough.

“A lot of credit goes to our kids,” Harris said, “and not just for working hard in the weight room or getting in the gym and doing extra, but for believing in my vision for the program. Every kid on the roster has been recruited by me or my staff for the last two years, and that has been a grind to replace a full roster in two seasons—that’s basically what we did. And last year, our kids got an opportunity to play. [They] had to endure some difficult times for us to get to this point, so the success that we’re having now, we’ve paid the price to have. We’ve had our bad days. We’ve been in the grind of it. It’s time to get back up again after we get knocked down. We deserve this. Our kids deserve this. And we will continue to get better, and we will continue to be humble about what’s happening, and we’ll continue to stay hungry. But this isn’t an accident. We’ve worked hard, and we’ve been working hard behind closed doors, so not a lot of people have seen it. All you’ve seen is us lose basketball games. We’ve always believed, and we knew this year—like Kelva said—is breakthrough season. We can either turn the corner, or remain how it has been. Our kids are just determined to turn the corner.”

On Saturday Nov. 22, UNCW will travel to Appalachian State University for their first road game of the season. Over Thanksgiving, the Seahawks will look to add to their ‘breakthrough’ season when they host the UNCW Hampton Inn Thanksgiving Classic over Nov. 28 and 29 at Trask Coliseum.