March 4, 2004
NORFOLK, VA -- The Old Dominion women's basketball team celebrated senior night and the final game of the 2003-04 regular season with a 79-45 victory over the Tribe of William & Mary Thursday night at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
The Lady Monarchs, the 12-time regular season CAA champions and winners of their last 13 contests, improved to 22-6 overall and 17-1 in the CAA. The Tribe, who will return to the Constant Center next week as the tournament's ninth seed, fall to 10-17 overall and 6-12 in the league.
Old Dominion took a 9-0 lead to open the game and never looked back en route to its 28-23 halftime lead. The Tribe's Kyra Kaylor pulled her team to within five, 11-6, with 15:38 left in the half, but just over a minute later the Lady Monarchs managed to up their lead to double digits. A 7-0 run by the Lady Monarchs put Old Dominion up by 12, 18-6, before the Tribe rallied. Christin Gethers and two buckets by freshman Kyle DeHaven brought William & Mary within four on three separate occasions, the last on a DeHaven lay-up with 10:48 on the clock for the slight 22-18 Old Dominion edge. However, within two minutes, the Lady Monarchs once again took a double digit lead as they closed the final nine minutes of the half outscoring the Tribe 16-5
The Lady Monarchs' 15-point halftime lead quickly became a 20-point lead early in the second half. Old Dominion came out of the locker room to take a 10-2 run and go up 48-25 with 16:36 left in the game. The Lady Monarchs held the 20-point edge for the rest of the second half and bumped that lead up to over 30 in the final minutes. The Tribe was held scoreless for the final 5:08 of the game.
The Lady Monarchs started all five members of its senior class with center Cassie Calwell (Raleigh, NC) and guard Marianthi Koukouvinou (Stockholm, Sweden) making their first career starts. Senior Monique Coker (Bronx, NY) tallied her 15th double-double of the season and 28th of career with a team-leading 16 points and 13 rebounds. Fellow seniors Myriah Spence (Espanola, NM) and Max Nhassengo (Maputo, Mozambique) each had double figure scoring games with 13 and 15 respectively. Freshman Tish Lyons (Newport News, VA) also poured in 10 points, including a 4-of-4 performance from the free throw line.
Freshman guard Kyle DeHaven led all scorers with 18 points along with eight rebounds and six assists in playing all 40 minutes. Gethers was the Tribe's other member in double figures with 10.
Old Dominion outrebounded the Tribe 46-24. The Lady Monarchs shot over 50 percent for the second straight game connecting on 29-of-57 for 50.9 percent from the field. The Lady Monarchs limited the Tribe to 32.7 from the floor, including 17.6 percent from beyond the arc.