Nov. 30, 2003
NORFOLK, VA -- The Old Dominion women's basketball team defeated the Charlotte 49ers 75-61 Saturday afternoon at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. Senior forward Monique Coker (Bronx, NY) led all Lady Monarch scorers with 14 points and became the 23rd Lady Monarch to eclipse the 1,000 career point mark. Coker earned her third double-double of the season by adding 12 rebounds and also swatted away a career-high seven blocks. The Lady Monarchs, who have won their third straight, improve to 3-2 for the season, while the 49ers drop to 3-2.
ODU jumped to a quick 8-0 lead in the first 2:27 of the first half, capped off by a Coker lay-up which gave her the milestone career mark. However, Charlotte answered back with seven straight points of their own to make it a one-point game, 8-7 at the 16:27 mark. A 17-4 Lady Monarch run gave ODU a 14-point edge, 25-11, with 10:26 remaining in the half. Once again, the 49ers had an answer, coming up with a 14-2 run to cut the Lady Monarch lead to just two points, 27-25, with 6:01 remaining in the first half. ODU then rattled off five straight points to extend their lead to seven points, 32-25, with 3:20 left in the half. Charlotte cut the lead to three points, 36-33, with 1:46 remaining in the half before ODU scored four straight points to take a 40-33 lead going into halftime.
The 49ers scored the first five points of the second half to cut the Lady Monarch lead to just two points, 40-38, at the 18:19 mark and tied the game for the first time at 44-44 with 16:10 left in the game. Charlotte scored four more points to take a 48-44 lead at the 15:05 mark, their first lead of the game. ODU tied the game again at 48-48, 50-50 and for the final time at 52-52 with 10:43 remaining. Trailing 52-50, the Lady Monarchs went on a 14-0 run to grab a 64-52 edge with 6:04 left in the half and led by no less than seven points for the remainder of the game. Up 64-57, ODU used an 11-4 run to take the 75-11 victory, to take home their second home victory this season.
Coker and Charlotte's Sakellie Daniels led all scorers with 14 points. ODU had three additional double-figure scorers for the game, led by senior Myriah Spence's (Espanola, NM) 13, senior Max Nhassengo's (Maputo, Mozambique) 12 and Shareese Grant's (Virginia Beach, VA) 11. On the Charlotte bench, Andrea Davidson scored 13 points and Monica League had 10 to lead the 49er effort.
The Lady Monarchs shot 27 of 60 (45%) from the field, while the 49ers shot 24 of 71 (33.8%). While both teams had 20 turnovers and grabbed 42 rebounds, ODU recorded a season-high 10 blocks, the most since a 63-49 victory over Virginia Tech in their first win at the Convocation Center back on December 21, 2002.
ODU next travels to Virginia Tech Wednesday, December 3rd, before returning home on Sunday, December 7th, to play North Carolina.