ODU Men's Basketball Rally is Too Little and Too Late as Monarchs Fall to Northeastern, 75-71
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Trailing by 14 points with nine minutes left, the Old Dominion men’s basketball team staged a furious rally, and with five seconds left, the outcome was still in doubt.
ODU trailed by three with Northeastern’s William Kermoury at the free throw line. Had he missed both, ODU could have tied and sent the game into overtime.
Instead, Kermoury made his second shot and the Huskies escaped with a 75-71 victory Sunday afternoon at Chartway Arena.
Northeastern (8-3), with victories over Florida Gulf Coast and LaSalle, is one of the better teams on ODU’s schedule. And a win over the Huskies would have done much to bolster ODU’s confidence.
The loss was the fifth in the last six games for ODU (3-8) and it followed a familiar pattern. The Monarchs at times fall far behind and then show a sense of urgency in the final minutes with a rally that falls just short.
“It’s unfortunate, but we’ve had multiple instances this season where we’ve dug ourselves in a hole,” said Mike Jones, ODU's head coach.
“We’ve shown the ability to keep fighting, to never stop, never give in. But the hole we dug was just too big and you wish you could see that kind of urgency earlier in the game.”
The one area where the Monarchs continue to show improvement is in the post. Caelum Swanton-Rodger, the 7-foot transfer from Maryland, had a career-high 12 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots in what may have been his best game of the season.
Ben Nacey, the 6-8 freshman from Virginia Beach’s Cox High School, has six points in 12 minutes.
Free-throw shooting was not a strong point, however, and may have been the difference in the game. The Monarchs made just nine of 19 free throws (47.4 percent), and several misses came in the game’s final minutes, when ODU was trying to rally.
Northeastern shot 70 percent, making 21 of 30.
The Monarchs end every practice with players shooting free throws. When a player misses a free throw, the entire team runs. When players make free throws, they don’t run.
“We’re trying to put that pressure on our guys every single day in practice,” Jones said. “But when you go nine for 19 and lose a game by four, that’s pretty easy to jump off the stat sheet to you.”
Robert Davis, Jr., the sophomore transfer from UMass, was a ironman for the Monarchs. He played all but 54 seconds and led ODU with 17 points. Sean Durugordon added 10 points and Stephaun Walker nine and a career-high 14 rebounds.
ODU trailed by two, 39-37, after two Swanton-Rodger foul shots five minutes into the second half when things began to call apart.
Northeastern outscored the Monarchs, 13-2, over a five-minute stretch in which ODU had five turnovers. Masai Troutman finished the run with a layup that gave Northeastern a 52-39 lead.
The lead was 14 with 8:50 left when the Monarchs made a final run. Davis was four-of-four on three-pointers in the final eight minutes and R.J. Blakney scored all of his nine points in the last seven minutes.
Devin Ceaser made one of two free throws with 1:30 left to trim the lead to four, 67-63.
Forced to foul, the Monarchs watched in frustration as Northeastern made eight of 11 free throws in the final 1:20..
The Monarchs begin Sun Belt Conference play on Saturday, Dec. 21, with a road trip to Louisiana-Monroe, before coming home for a non-conference home game against Virginia Wesleyan on Saturday, Dec. 28.
The Monarchs then begin Sun Belt play en masse when they host Arkansas State on Thursday, Jan. 2 and Southern Miss on Saturday Jan. 4.
“We’re playing our non-conference schedule to get ready for Sun Belt Conference play,” Jones said. "We're trying to learn all the lessons now we need to know for the most important part of our schedule."
Swanton-Rodger said the lesson the Monarchs most need to learn is to focus for all 40 minutes.
“It’s something we’ve struggled with since the beginning of the season,” he said. “I think that’s the next big step for us going forward.”