Feb. 2, 2005
NORFOLK, VA --Valdas Vasylius (Klaipeda, Lithuania) scored a career-high 29 points--and grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double--to lead the Old Dominion men's basketball team to a 70-59 victory over Towson University Wednesday night at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. Alex Loughton (Perth, Australia) also had a double-double for ODU, scoring 20 points and also grabbing 10 rebounds. The win improves ODU's season record to 20-3, with a 10-1 mark in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Monarchs are now one of only three teams, along with Illinois and Syracuse, who have 20 wins so far this season. Towson drops to 5-16 overall and 2-9 in the CAA.
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The Monarchs grabbed a quick 6-0 lead to start the game off, with Valdas Vasylius scoring four points. By the 11:26 mark of the half, ODU took a nine point lead, 18-9, after Brian Henderson (Richmond, VA) made a fastbreak lay-up. Towson bounced back, going on a 9-2 run over the next four minutes, to close the gap to 20-18, with 7:13 remaining in the half. By the 4:06 mark, ODU still held a narrow three-point lead, 27-24, but a 6-0 run, highlighted by a Vasylius three-pointer, gave the Monarchs an eight-point lead, 32-24, with 2:24 left in the game. ODU took a 36-28 lead going into halftime.
Four early second half points by Valdas Vasylius helped extend the Monarch lead to 12 points, 40-28, at the 18:24 mark of the half, and by the 12:51 mark, ODU had a game-high 13 point lead, 47-34. The Tigers closed the gap to five points, 51-46, with just under 10 minutes left in the game, but just two minutes later, ODU extended the lead once again to 10 points, 58-48, and Vasylius connected on a three-pointer. With just under two minutes remaining, the Monarchs took an 11 point lead, following four straight Alex Loughton points, and a free throw by Kiah Thomas (Norfolk, VA/Granby) in the closing seconds of the game secured ODU's 70-59 victory.
During the game, Alex Loughton became just the 39th ODU player ever to score 1,000 points. Loughton now has 1,001 career points. Valdas Vasylius led all scorers with 29 points and also grabbed 10 rebounds. Loughton had 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Monarchs, while Brandon Johnson (Orlando, FL) had a career-high 10 assists. Cantrell Fletcher had 12 points to lead Towson, while Winstonn Tubbs and Mike Green both had 10 points each for the Tigers. As a team, ODU out-rebounded Towson 40-33 and had a 22-6 advantage on foul shots made.
Startingguard Isaiah Hunter was held out of the game as a precautionary measure. He injured his back in a fall against Drexel.
The Monarchs are back in action Saturday, February 5, when they travel to play UNC-Wilmington. Tip-off is at 4:00 and the game will be televised locally on Comcast Sportsnet.