Photos Courtesy: John Crouch / UNCW Athletic Communications 

WILMINGTON, N.C. – Defensively, College of Charleston gave UNCW fits all night in a hard-fought 65-55 road loss on Saturday night before a crowd of 5,100 at Trask Coliseum.

The Cougars (13-8, 5-5 CAA) forced the Seahawks (16-5, 8-2 CAA) to commit a season-high 18 turnovers and limited the Colonial Athletic Association's top scoring offense to only 65 points.

CofC entered the contest on a three-game win streak in league play and jumped out to an early 5-0 lead behind a game-opening three-pointer from freshman Jarrell Brantley (Columbia, S.C.) and a steal by redshirt freshman Nick Harris (Dacula, Ga.) that led to a layup by freshman Marquise Pointer (Jonesboro, Ark.).

Both teams' showcased their long-range abilities in the first half as the Cougars went 4-for-7 from beyond the arc and UNCW 6-for-13. The game was tied up six times until preseason All-CAA Honorable Mention selection Craig Ponder broke an 18-18 tie as the Seahawks jolted to a 37-26 lead over the final eight minutes of the first half.

Brantley made a last second tip-in off a layup miss by sophomore Cameron Johnson (Athens, Ga.) to send CofC into the locker room down just 37-28 at halftime.

Just as they have in the majority of their conference games, Charleston charged back in the second half. Johnson would connect on a three-pointer with 12:10 remaining in regulation to close the gap to 43-39, but UNCW broke away on a 14-4 run behind a three-point play on consecutive possessions from Chris Flemmings. He ended the night with a game-high 25 points, including 16 in the first half alone, to lead the Seahawks to their seventh-straight win.

Pointer led the Cougars with a team-high 17 points, while Brantley added 15 and Johnson 10.

CofC returns home to the Lowcountry to settle into a three-game CAA homestand beginning with Towson (16-7, 7-3 CAA) on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m. (ET) at TD Arena. The game will be televised live locally on MyTV Charleston. Tickets are still available for purchase by calling (843) 953-COFC or online at www.CofCSports.com/tickets

For more information on College of Charleston Basketball, follow the Cougars on Twitter at @CofCBasketball.

POSTGAME NOTES

· For the eighth-straight game, College of Charleston went with the starting five of freshman Marquise Pointer, sophomore Cameron Johnson, junior Payton Hulsey, freshman Jarrell Brantley and redshirt freshman Nick Harris for the sixth-consecutive ballgame (4-4).

· UNCW gets within one game in the all-time series in which College of Charleston still leads 10-9. The Seahawks have now won five-straight games in the series and remains an unbeaten 3-0 at Trask Coliseum since the Cougars joined the CAA in July of 2013.

· Marquise Pointer registered a team-high 17 points at UNCW. He is on a career-best tying three-game double-digit scoring streak.

· Jarrell Brantley led the Cougars in rebounds (7) and assists (4), while also adding 15 points and four steals to his stat line at UNCW.

· Cameron Johnson extended his double-digit scoring streak to a career-best six consecutive games with 10 points at UNCW.

· Sophomore Donovan Gilmore came off the bench and contributed a season-high six points, seven rebounds, one block and one steal in a season-high tying 20 minutes of action at UNCW.

· Graduate senior James Bourne checked into the ballgame at the 12:53 minute mark of the first half after missing the last four weeks with a knee injury.

· The CofC defense forced UNCW into committing a season-high 18 turnovers and held the Seahawks, the CAA's top scoring offense averaging 82.8 points per game, to their third-lowest scoring output of the season (65 points).

· The Cougars shot a season-high 92.9 percent from the free throw line (13-for-14) making their first 11 consecutive attempts at UNCW.

· CofC made a conference season-high 12 steals behind a career-high four from Jarrell Brantley and four from Payton Hulsey at UNCW. The Cougars have now made 10-or-more steals in back-to-back league games with 10 versus Northeastern on Jan. 28.

POSTGAME QUOTES

College of Charleston Head Coach Earl Grant

On the game …

“I thought Wilmington did a great job of getting us to play their style. They opened up the game in the middle of the first half. Give them credit. We turned over the ball 11 times which was too many in the first half. We've done a great job all year. In 95 percent of our games, we've always had great ball care. I really didn't expect to turnover the ball as much. We will go back into film and see how we can make some corrections on that for the future.”

On the game plan to try to make it his program's style of play …

“We do what we do. We run our offense the way we run it. We set good screens and share the ball. We take care of the ball and don't turn it over. Nothing is different. Every game is the same for us: play good defense, rebound the ball, share the ball, be unselfish and make it hard for people to score.”

On the six-minute stretch when the Cougars didn't score in the second half …

“Four-or-five times, we drove it to the basket and didn't finish. We didn't block a shot or we were called with a foul, or maybe it wasn't a foul. It was a situation where we couldn't convert two points. The reason why we didn't score was because we didn't finish. Give Wilmington credit for blocking some of our shots. That's really what happened. We got it down to 44-41 with about 12 minutes to go. We had good flow and good pace. We had the game where we wanted it and they had another two-minute (scoring) spurt.”