Dec. 13, 2003
NORFOLK, VA -John Waller (Richmond, VA) scored career highs in both field goals (eight) and points (20) to lead the Old Dominion men's basketball team to its first regular season home win, 77-62, over Morgan State, Saturday night at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. Alex Loughton (Perth, Australia) scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to earn another double-double. ODU improves to 2-3 for the season, while Morgan State drops to 1-4.
The Morgan State Bears jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead early in the first half before ODU countered with a 6-0 run to cut the Bears' lead to 7-6. Morgan State pushed to as much as an eight point lead, 22-14, at the 9:10 mark of the half, but Old Dominion went on an 11-0 run to grab its first lead of the night, 25-22, off a Troy Nance (Virginia Beach, VA) three-pointer. Still leading, 26-24, Morgan State rolled off four straight points to take a narrow 28-26 lead just under five minutes before halftime, but a 8-3 Monarch run put ODU up 34-31 at the break. Waller had 10 points in the first half.
A layup by Morgan State's Ronald Timus cut the Monarch lead to just one point, 34-33, at the start of the second half, but the Bears could get no closer for the rest of the game. ODU quickly pulled out to a 44-35 lead by the 16:45 mark of the half and established as high as a 23-point lead, 62-39, with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game. The Bears made a brief run to cut the Monarch lead to just 13 points, 69-56, with 3:52 left in the game, but ODU once again pulled out to a 21-point, 77-56, lead with just over two minutes remaining in the half. Morgan State was able to score the remaining six points of the game to give the Monarchs the 77-62 win in the first meeting between the two schools.
For the game, the Monarchs shot 37.1 % from the field (26 of 70), while Morgan State shot 39.3% (24 of 61). ODU held a narrow 43-42 rebounding margin and committed only 10 turnovers to the Bears' 20. Alex Loughton earned two of the Monarchs' five blocks for the game. John Waller led all Monarch scorers with 20 points, while Loughton had 18 points and 15 rebounds. Isaiah Hunter (Charlotte, NC) also scored 18 points, followed by Troy Nance's 10. Morgan State had two double-figure scorers, led by Aaron Andrew's 14, followed by Ronald Timus' 10. The Monarchs next play at South Alabama in Mobile, AL, Monday night, December 15, at 9:00 PM. The game will be televised locally by Cox Cable, Channel 71.