Feb. 6, 2005
NORFOLK, Va. -- Old Dominion completed the season sweep of Towson on Saturday afternoon at the Ted Constant Convocation Center with 78-56 victory as junior Lawona Davis (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) tied her career-high scoring 25 points for the second straight time against the Tigers and adding 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. Davis went 10-of-16 from the field and a perfect 5-of-5 from the line.
The victory pushes Old Dominion's record to 13-6 overall and 9-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) as they head into Friday's crucial showdown with the Delaware Fightin' Blue Hens in Newark, Delaware. The Lady Monarchs sit a game behind Delaware in the league standings, who won its match-up with UNC-Wilmington on Sunday and hold a perfect 11-0 CAA mark. Towson meanwhile falls to 12-10 overall and 5-6 in the CAA.
The Lady Monarchs held a one-point lead at the half, entering the locker room ahead 33-32. Old Dominion was holding on to a six point lead, 14-8, with 12:59 left in the half, before the Tigers made their first run of the afternoon. From there, Towson went on an 8-0 run to take over the lead capped off by a fastbreak by Tiger senior Kelly Talbot with 9:35 remaining. Another run ensued, this time by the Lady Monarchs. Within two minutes of losing the lead, Old Dominion went on a 8-0 run of its own to go back up by six with 7:39 on the clock, 22-16. The Tigers once again made a comeback as Kelly Robinson netted the next 11 Towson points, highlighted by back-to-back-to-back three pointers, to reclaim the lead, 27-24, as 5:07 remained in the half. After two ties, Old Dominion regained the lead as four made free throws by freshman Megan Pym (Newfield, N.Y.) and a bucket by leading scorer Shareese Grant (Va. Beach, Va.) helped ODU to a four point, 33-29, edge with just over a minute remaining. The Tigers however rattled off three points in the closing minute to cut their deficit to one at the first half buzzer.
Old Dominion controlled the second half though outscoring Towson 45-24, which included 17 of Davis' 25 points. Tiger leading scorer Tierra Jackson started the half with a bucket to give Towson its last lead of the game. Two free throws by Davis immediately following gave Old Dominion the lead it would not lose. Towson would managed to tie up the game three more times, the last at 46-46 with 12:35 left, but Old Dominion took over racing out on a 13-2 run. Pym capped off the run as the Lady Monarchs led 59-48 with 8:17 remaining and held on to a double-digit lead from there on. Over the final 2:37 of the game, Old Dominion outscored the Tigers 12-1.
Robinson, whose three consecutive three-pointers sparked the Tigers on one of their first half runs, concluded the game with a team-high 15 points. Talbot netted 14 points, which included her 1,000th career point. She became the 12th Tiger to reach the milestone. Jackson was the other Tiger in double figures with 13.
Along with Davis, Grant and sophomore Tish Lyons (Newport News, Va.) reached double figures. Grant netted 17 to go along with five assists and three steals, while Lyons poured in eight of her 15 points from the free throw line.
The Lady Monarchs shot above 80 percent from the free throw line for only the third time this season, hitting 23-of-27 for an 85.2 clip. It was their best performance from the stripe since knocking down 31-of-36 (86.1 percent) in their upset victory over then #16/19 Rutgers. Both Davis, the nation's fourth leading free throw shooter, and Pym went perfect from the line hitting 5-of-5 and 4-of-4 respectively.
Additionally, Old Dominion was a monster on the boards outrebounding Towson 42-24. Davis led the way in her first career double-digit rebounding effort with 10 rebounds. Leading rebounder, freshman Tiffany Green (Chesapeake, Va.) hauled in seven. Talbot and LaShay Rose each had four boards to lead Towson.
Old Dominion returns to action on Friday at Delaware at 7:00 p.m. at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Delaware.