The UNC Wilmington men’s basketball team took on St. Augustine’s College Sunday afternoon at Trask Coliseum in the Seahawks’ second exhibition game of the 2011-12 season. UNCW beat the Falcons 56-53 but struggled with missed open shots and careless turnovers.

“We’re a very young team,” coach Buzz Peterson said. “The one thing I wish we could stop is these unforced turnovers and silly mistakes that we make. Whether its dribbling the basketball or making bad passes in the open court.”

Although it felt like UNCW had firm control of the game, the Seahawks lost focus late in the second half and allowed St. Augustine’s to have one last surge. UNCW held a comfortable 15-point lead with 3:54 to play, but careless ball control and turnovers by Freddie Jackson opened the door for the Falcons. The Falcons narrowly missed forcing overtime as their last second three-point attempt was off the mark.

“There were a lot of guys that I wouldn’t have had in there late,” Peterson said. “Number one, I would’ve had some different personnel, but I thought it was good to get some of the guys some good late game experience. Honestly, I’d rather be in that situation than a blow out.”

The team struggled mightily with 3-point shooting the entire game, as they were only able to hit 4 of 19 shots from long range.  Keith Rendleman had a tough game as well with only two points on 1-7 shooting.

With the rest of the team having trouble scoring the basketball, freshman guard Adam Smith took over the game midway through the first half. Smith nailed three 3-pointers on his way to racking up 11 first-half points. His hot streak continued into the second half as he finished as the leading scorer with 20 points on 8-15 shooting.

“I’ve just been working harder,” said Smith. “I’ve been staying in the gym longer and putting up more shots. I saw what I was doing wrong early, and I just tried to adjust as much as I could.”

Although Rendleman was having trouble in the post, the Seahawks got a strong game from freshman forward Cedrick Williams. Williams was a beast rebounding the ball, which propelled him to a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The win for the Seahawks was their 24th in a row in exhibition contests, and also gives them a better idea what they need to improve upon. The real bullets start to fly next Sunday when the team heads to College Park to take on Maryland.