BUIES CREEK – Campbell dropped a close one 73-68 to UNCW Saturday inside Gore Arena. Campbell had the ball with a chance to tie with 15 seconds left before turning it over and missing their chance to draw even.
 
Campbell falls to 13-15, 7-8 on the year. UNCW improves to 24-4, 13-2 in the league.
 
Chris Fields led Campbell with 17 points, his most in CAA play. With Dovydas Butka in foul trouble, Fields carried the load and scored 13 points in the second half. Butka still stuffed the stat
 
The Camels held a late, one-point lead before an 8-0 run in the span of one minute took the Seahawks from down one to up seven with 1:52 to go. A quick spurt by the Camels worked the lead down to one, but turned out to be as close as the Camels would get. Down three, an errant pass was taken the other way to put the Seahawks up five and ice the game.
 
Jahnathan Lamothe set the tone in the first half for UNCW, scoring 15 points on 4-6 from three-point range in the opening 20 minutes. Campbell hit five threes to keep pace and went to the locker room down a point, 36-35.
 
The Camels led by as many as seven after halftime with 7:55 to play. UNCW outscored the Camels 21-11 from that point to nab the late win.
 
DJ Smith and Cam Gregory joined fields in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
 
Campbell battled foul trouble all night and finished with four players on four fouls, leading UNCW to going 20-33 at the foul line. The Seahawks also had their way on the glass, outrebounding the Camels 46-34 and 18-6 on the offensive glass.
 
A crowd of 2,765 was on hand for the game, the largest crowd inside Gore Arena since the 2018-19 season.
 
The Camels now gear up for the final road trip of the season, visiting Drexel on Thursday and Towson on Saturday. Both games will be broadcast on FloCollege.