WILMINGTON, N.C. – Keith Adkins' homecoming in Trask Coliseum was special. The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW) media relations staff, radio broadcasters and the Star News all hyped Adkins' return, leaving some fans nostalgic alongside their former sharpshooter. Fans spent Tuesday leaving congratulatory comments on UNCW's Facebook page or reminiscing about Adkins' glory days, including a big 3 as part of a 23-point night in December 1992 when Adkins and UNCW upset N.C. State, 96-84.

"It was really nice. The people here were great welcoming me back. Just to have the opportunity to go back was an honor. The opportunity to see a lot of people after 20 years was an honor also," said Adkins. "A lot has changed in Trask (Coliseum) since I played there. It was a little emotional when I first walked in. Looking around, a lot of memories came back. You look at certain parts of the floor and remember certain shots that were hit and you look at the banners and remember games that meant a lot to me. It was a little nostalgic."

But as Adkins is quick to point out, while the homecoming was nice, the Campbellsville University Tigers were there to play basketball. The game is one of two CU will play in the Roundball Showcase, an NCAA exempt tournament hosted over two weeks at various home teams' courts.

Campbellsville used an early 7-0 run to build a 7-4 lead in the first few minutes, but UNC Wilmington pulled away late in the first half and continued to extend its lead after halftime for a 72-55 win. The loss is Adkins' first to his alma mater, where he holds the career 3-point field goal percentage record and is second for best free throw percentage in a season. For UNCW, the game snaps a two-game skid in their regular season, while the Tigers count the competition as an exhibition.

CU played most of the game without two of its main starters after Eric Gaines exited with an injury just three minutes into the game and DeShawn Dockery played only 17 minutes, still nursing an injury suffered against Pikeville.

"Once we lost a couple of rotation guys, it really hurt us. When you lose a couple of starters it messes up your whole rotation and that's what we got into tonight," Adkins said.

Jordan Myers logged a career-high 32 minutes and led the Tigers in the first half with 10 points and 13 in the game. A'Darius Pegues, Darius Clement and Miles Rice all followed with big second half performances, scoring nine, eight and seven points. That is until Elliott Young came off the bend and shot 4-of-6 from the field, including two 3s, to finish with 10 points. Bryton Taylor, who was all over the floor defensively, ended the game with a team-high 11 rebounds.

Cedrick Williams led UNCW with a home game season-high of 15 points, while Ben Eblen scored 13 and Luke Hager had 12 boards.

The game saw four lead changes and two ties in the first seven minutes, but once UNCW pulled ahead, 11-9, the Seahawks didn't let up. UNCW scored six-straight to start a 10-2 run. The Seahawks extended its lead to 36-20 at halftime and then grew to as many as 24 with three minutes to play.

Campbellsville went to the free throw line only three times, shooting 4-of-6, but put gave the Seahawks 27 free throw attempts. The Seahawks also won the battle of the boards, 48-28, including 15 offensive rebounds. Both teams' defenses held their opponent to below 40 percent shooting from the floor, and CU was extra tough on 3-point shots, holding UNCW to 1-of-22 from Adkins' old spot on the floor.

"I thought we played as well as we did against Western Kentucky or Oklahoma State, we just played short-handed. Hopefully we got some of the edge back. When we left Western Kentucky I felt pretty well about where we were as a team. Then we played four NAIA games and we seemed to have lost some of our edge. Hopefully we got a little of that emotional and physiological edge back tonight," said Adkins.

Campbellsville (2-2) will close its four-game exhibition schedule against NCAA Division I opponents with another Roundball Showcase game Friday, Nov. 29 at Samford University (1-6) in Birmingham, Ala. Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. EST.

"We're going to try to regroup physically more than anything and go down there with the same mindset as we've had these other three Division I games, and that's to go down there and hopefully come out of Friday a better basketball team than we were," said Adkins.

The game will be broadcast live on WLCU 88.7 FM (WLCUfm.com) beginning at 7:45 p.m.

BOX SCORE


NOTES
- Keith Adkins (UNCW '94) returned to his alma mater for the first time as a college head coach.
- Adkins played two seasons at UNCW for former head coach Kevin Eastman in 1991-92 and 1992-93. He appeared in 55 games, averaging 10.5 points, 1.7 rebounds an 4.6 assists. The two teams were 30-36 combined in the two years.
- The game ended a six-game road trip for the Seahawks, as they snapped a two-game skid in the Roundball Showcase after losses at Western Kentucky University and Marshall University.
- UNCW entered the game shooting 71.2 percent from the free throw line.