In its last home game of the regular season, the UNC Wilmington women’s basketball team gave its fans something to cheer about Wednesday night with a 64-54 win over Georgia State University. The Seahawks improved to 18-11 overall and 11-7 in the CAA season.

“It was huge for us to clinch the five spot (in the CAA Tournament),” coach Cynthia Cooper-Dyke said. “We’re actually tied for fourth for the regular season and going to be seeded fifth for the tournament. For the second year in a row, we made upper echelon of a very strong CAA conference.”

Leading the team was junior forward Karneshia Garrett and sophomore guard Alisha Andrews, each with a total of seven field goals. “I had to redeem myself because I didn’t play on Sunday against Hofstra,” Garrett said. “I came ready to play today.”

Andrews particularly stood out with a total of six three-point shots, on her way to a game-high 22 points. “In the second half, it opened up when Alisha just really came out and hit some key shots and penetrated and got the ball to certain people and made it look easy,” Cooper-Dyke said. “We’ve been looking for that type of leadership from Alisha all season long, and hopefully she can feed off that and we can rely on that as we move into the tournament.

“I think it would have been more of a dogfight if Alisha hadn’t knocked out those two threes and really took over the game.”

“I was just having fun,” Andrews said, shrugging off her successful game. “I just go out there, and take it a game at a time.” Senior center Theresa Jackson-Henderson started for the first time and did not disappoint, grabbing 14 rebounds.

“It was exciting, my first start ever in my career, and I didn’t want to let my team down,” Jackson-Henderon said. “I’m a senior; it’s my last hurrah and I wanted to go out with a bang. Coach is always stressing rebounds for us.”

Her performance impressed her Hall-of-Fame coach. “She really came out with an intensity and rebounded well for us and almost had a double-double playing so many minutes,” Cooper-Dyke said. “She just really was a bright spot for today’s game.”

In general, the team felt good about their last game at home. “You don’t want to leave the fans with a nasty taste in their mouths,” Garrett said. “It’s Senior Night; we wanted to get the win for Theresa, and she came out ready to play.”

As they enter a new season, Cooper-Dyke believes one thing will lead them to success. “Effort,” she said. “Throw away everything that’s been done, everything that’s been said and all the different emotions and now start a new season with the correct mentality, fixing some problems and giving consistent effort. When we’ve played hard, we’ve been there in every single game. When we’ve given effort, we give ourselves a chance to win.”

The team will head to the first round of the CAA Tournament, March 8.