WILMINGTON, North Carolina. - Freshman guard Alisha Andrews keyed a late rally with her long range shooting as UNCW skipped past Ohio, 62-53, in a non-conference women's basketball game Wednesday night at Trask Coliseum.

        The Seahawks won their fourth game in five outings to improve to 8-3 heading into their conference opener on Sunday with a 1 p.m. tip-off against Drexel. The Bobcats out of the Mid-American Conference had a modest two-game winning streak snapped and now stand 4-9 on the season.

        Senior guard Brittany Blackwell paced UNCW with 17 points and 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season and the 29^th of her sparkling career. Andrews wound up with 15 points, just two shy of her career high, along a career-high six steals six assists and five rebounds for the Seahawks, who went 6-for-21 behind the arc.

        Sophomore guard Symone Lyles led three OU players in double figures with 12 points, followed by Alesia Howard with 11 and Thia Gholson with 10. The Bobcats shot just 36.7 percent from the field, including a frosty 1-for-11 from long distance, and committed 23 turnovers.

        UNCW, playing for the first time since a loss to No. 24 Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Mass., overcame a cold shooting night with a defensive stand in the second half to subdue the Bobcats, who were playing without leading scorer and rebounder Tenishia Benson.

        OU used an effective 2-3 zone defense to force the Seahawks into 31.4 percent shooting to go ahead, 26-25, at the break. But UNCW answered with a trapping scheme of its own to create some separation and then cruised down the stretch to take a 3-2 advantage in series.

        Andrews, a 5-2 mighty mite from Stone Mountain, Ga., kept the Seahawks close early in the second half with three triples in the first four minutes and then sparked a decisive 9-0 run midway through the period to help the Seahawks turn back the pesky Bobcats.

        After the Bobcats crept to within 47-44 on an Erin Bailes free throw with 10:18 remaining, reserve forward Mya Levels canned a turnaround jumper and Andrews fed Kristen Hanzer for back-to-back transition layups. Andrews then put the game out of reach with a triple from the right wing that pushed the margin to 56-44 at 6:54, UNCW's largest lead of the contest.

        The Seahawks grabbed control early against the Bobcats and led by as many as nine points in the opening period before the Bobcats roared back for a 26-25 halftime edge. Despite making just eight of its first 26 attempts, UNCW still led 18-9 when Treasure Johnson scored on a putback at 10:22.

        OU responded with an 8-0 spurt, however, to climb within, 18-17, behind Howard. The redshirt sophomore started with run with a pair of free throws and added two more charity tosses with 8:19 left in the half to slice the deficit to 18-15 at 8:19. A turnaround jumper on the right baseline by Erin Bailes then made the score 18-17 at 6:53.

        Gholson converted a conventional three-point play 16 seconds later to even the score at 20-all before Blackwell put the Seahawks in the lead with a layup with just over five minutes on the clock.

        OU took a 26-25 lead into the break when reserve forward Tina Fisher canned a 12-footer on the right baseline with 23 seconds remaining in the first period.

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