Nov. 29, 2005
Norfolk, Va. -- It was a well balanced scoring attack which led the Old Dominion women's basketball team to its first win of the 2005-06 season with a 93-61 victory over Penn State. Four Lady Monarchs reached double digits highlighted by a 20-point second-half scoring barrage by leading scorer T.J. Jordan.
The Lady Monarchs' 32-point win over the Lady Lions was not only ODU's largest margin of victory over Penn State (1-3) in the 10 games played between the two teams, but also the largest margin over a team from the BIG 10.
After being held scoreless in the first half, sophomore T.J. Jordan (Portsmouth, Va.) once again came off the bench to lead her squad in scoring, becoming the first Lady Monarch to reach the 20-point mark this season. All six of Jordan's field goals came from three-point land and she added in four more points as she went a perfect 2-of-2 from the charity stripe.
Jordan was joined by three others in double figures, juniors Tish Lyons (Newport News, Va.) and Sherida Triggs (Norcross, Ga.) with 16, and senior Lawona Davis (Port St. Lucie, Fla.) with 17.
Although the Lady Monarchs have only played in three games thus far, Old Dominion had its best shooting percentages from the floor, three-point range, and the free throw line. Old Dominion connected on 33-of-63 from the floor to finished shooting 48.6 percent for the night, 17-of-20 for 85 percent from the stripe, and 10-of-15 from downtown for 66.7 percent.
Four Lady Monarchs went perfect from the line which included 4-for-4 performances by Triggs and junior Shantel Wilson (Washington, D.C.). Additionally it wasn't only Jordan with the hot hand from three as Lyons, sophomore Jen Nuzzo (Newport News, Va.) and junior Paula Muxiri (Luanda, Angola) all had their turns from beyond the arc.
Old Dominion opened the game on a 22-9 run and never looked back. The Lady Lions' Adrienne Squire would cut her team's deficit down to double digits as she flirted with Penn State's all-time three point record. One of her six three's (PSU's record is nine held by all-time leading scorer Kelly Mazzante) pulled Penn State to within nine, 28-19, with 8:40 remaining in the first half.
Excellent free throw shooting by the Lady Monarchs bumped ODU's lead back up to as many as 15 as they made seven of their eight attempts. However, Penn State used a 7-2 run in the half's final four minutes to close back within nine, 44-35, at the half.
Penn State was outscored 49-26 in the second half. After Lyons drained a three for the Lady Monarchs' first bucket of half number two, Old Dominion enjoyed a double-digit lead the rest of the way. The Lady Lions were held to six points over the game's final 10 minutes as the Lady Monarchs exploded for 26.
Squire, who came off the bench, led the Lady Lions with a career-high 20 points, with 12 coming from three-point range. Leading scorer Amanda Brown netted 15, while Kamela Gissendanner had 10 along with a game-high seven boards.
The Lady Monarchs will return to action on Sunday, December 4th at 2:00 p.m. when they host Vanderbilt. The Commodores are currently ranked 19th in the AP Poll and 20th in the ESPN/WBCA/USA Today Poll.