New women’s basketball head coach Adell Harris and the Seahawks picked up their first win of the season Wednesday night, as they soared past North Carolina Central, 59-45.

After losing three straight games on the road, getting back home proved to be exactly what this team needed.

“Home is where our fans are. We have so much support here,” senior leader Karneshia Garrett said. “It was good playing at home for the first time, and good to get the win here too.”

Despite getting off to a slow start, the Seahawks got a spark from their bench early in the second half and were able to cruise on to a fairly comfortable victory. Kelva Atkins was the game-changer, scoring 15 points and distributing 3 assists. Her speed changed the entire tempo of the game, and made the Seahawk offense much more potent.

“If she is playing at top speed, she’s really as fast as any kid playing basketball in the country,” Coach Harris said. “She just can go.”

As the speedy Atkins kept penetrating the Eagles defense, defenders started to collapse, leaving shooters like junior guard Jessica Freeman wide open on the perimeter. Freeman capitalized on her opportunities, shooting 5-6 from the field and scoring 13 points.

It wasn’t just in the backcourt where UNCW found success, though, as Karneshia Garrett scored 11 points and dominated the boards with a career high 18 rebounds.

“Rebounding is always stressed,” Garrett said. “After we played Elon and they outrebounded us by 19, we ran 19 suicides. Tonight it was just in my mind; I’m not going to run these sprints.”

Chasidy Williams lead all North Carolina Central scorers with 15.

With the win over the Eagles, the Seahawks move to 1-3 on the year.

“I’m excited to get our first win of the season,” Coach Harris acknowledged. “There are a lot of good things that happened today. There are also a lot of things we want to correct and get better at.”

The win also marked Harris’ first as a Division I head coach, something she’s taking in stride.

“Whether it’s the first one, the last one, I don’t look at it that way,” she said. “I’m just happy that we won.”