Nov. 19, 2005
ST. THOMAS, VI--Senior pre-season All-American Alex Loughton (Perth, Australia) scored 17 points and hauled in 15 rebounds to lead the Monarchs of Old Dominion (2-0) to a 65-52 victory over Fordham (0-1) Saturday night in the semi-finals of the Paradise Jam basketball tournament. ODU will play the University of Wisconsin Monday night in the championship game at 8:30 ET. The game can be seen in Hampton Roads on ComCast Sportsnet channel 35.Wisconson defeated Eastern Kentucky in double overtime.
Fordham led most of the first half and took a 29-27 lead into the locker room at thebreak behind some balanced scoring led by Jermaine Anderson with six points, BryantDunston, Mrcus Stout, and Nicholas Vita with five each. ODU shot .259( 7-27) from thefloor while the Rams shot .357 (10-28 ) from the field.
In the second half, the Monarchs finally took control late after four ties and nine leadchanges.
With the score tied at 51 with 5:30 left, Valdas Vasylius (Klapieda, Lithuania) tippedin a basket to put ODU up for good at 53-51. Drew Williamson then hit ajumper to make it 55-51 at 3:47 mark, then Isaiah Hunter hit a trey with 3:11 leftto make it 58-51.
After a two free throws by Bryant Dunston , Williamson nailed another trey to giveODU a 61-52 lead with 2:03 left. Williams then hit four more free throws in thefinal two minutes. In all, the junior point guard scored nine points in the final fourminutes of play.
Besides Loughton's double-double, Isaiah Hunter added 11 points, and Williamsonfinished with 15 points and two assists.
ODU shot .370 (20-54) from the floor while the Fordham Rams shot .281 (18-64).In the second half, ODU's defense held Fordham to no treys and .222 (8-36) shooting.