Teams from around the country travel to Wilmington for first-ever Live Oak Bank Holiday Classic at UNCW

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Heading into this season, creating an early-season basketball tournament at Trask Coliseum was a priority for the UNCW’s men’s basketball team.

This week, that hope became a reality with the first-ever Live Oak Bank Holiday Classic, which included six games over three days during Thanksgiving week.

The tournament attracted schools from around the country, with Colgate, Sam Houston and Appalachian State – three teams that won their conferences in the regular season last year – traveling to Wilmington for the week to participate in the round-robin event. It becomes the newest early-season college basketball tournament, which have become increasingly popular over recent years.

The inaugural classic wrapped up Saturday afternoon with the third and final doubleheader of the week. UNCW beat Appalachian State 76-61 and Sam Houston topped Colgate 82-78.

Afterwards, Seahawks head coach Takyo Siddle said he was pleased with the first year of the tournament – especially its impact off-the-court.

“I think it was very important for our community, very important for our university for us to be able to do this for the first time – it brings everyone together,” Siddle said. “When I took over the job, I said I wanted to be one with the community, me, my staff and the program, so that was very important to me.”

Siddle said he’s also excited with UNCW being able to build something “from the ground up” and potentially grow the tournament over future years.

“It makes you have a lot of pride in it. This is a proud, proud program and we want everybody to be proud of us, so that’s why it was important,” the coach said. “I thought it went very well. All the coaches, the players, all of them told me in passing, ‘hey man, what a great tournament.’”

The Seahawks continue their season in Greenville on Tuesday, when they’ll travel to face East Carolina.