Nov. 25, 2006
NORFOLK, Va. -- Old Dominion head women's basketball coach Wendy Larry earned her 450th win as head coach of the Lady Monarch program and moved to within one game of collecting her 500th career win as Old Dominion defeated Delaware State, 57-46, Saturday afternoon at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
The win, ODU's second straight, improved the Lady Monarchs to 2-2 overall, while the Hornets fall to 1-2. The game marked the first ever meeting between the two schools.
Larry's record now stands at 450-153 in her 20th season at the helm of the ODU's women's program. Her overall mark stands at 499-184.
Junior T.J. Jordan (Portsmouth, Va.) and senior Sherida Triggs (Norcross, Ga.) led Old Dominion with 12 points each. Jordan has been ODU's leading scorer in all four contests thus far. Junior Tay Ransburg (Kansas City, Mo.) had all her nine points in the second half. Sophomore Tiffany Green (Chesapeake, Va.) also netted nine in the victory.
Delaware State was led by Ashlee Burbage with a game-high 14 points. Rauel Collier was the Hornets' other double figure scoring on the afternoon with 11.
Old Dominion never trailed in the contest. Back-to-back three pointers by Jordan gave the Lady Monarchs a 27-12 lead with 4:51 left in the first half. The 15-point edge would be Old Dominion's largest as the Hornets began to chip away at the lead late in the first half and continued to close the gap in the second.
Over the final 4:51 of the first half, Delaware State held Old Dominion without field goal, only allowing the Lady Monarchs to capture two more points coming from the line. The Hornets closed out the first half on a 10-2 run, only letting freshman Jessica Canady (Jamestown, Va.) hit two free throws during the span. Old Dominion held on to a 29-22 lead at the half.
Old Dominion came out of the locker room and after missing their first two shots at the rim, Triggs collected the rebound and was fouled. Her traditional three-point play pushed the Lady Monarch lead to 10 with Old Dominion ahead 32-22. However a 10-point lead quickly became only a two-point lead three minutes later.
Delaware State proceeded to take a 9-1 run, which was helped by Old Dominion's performance from the line. During the Hornet run, the Lady Monarchs got to the free throw line four times, but only connected on one attempt. A Jordan three helped stop the drought and Delaware State would get no closer than trailing 36-33 with 15:09 remaining.
Ahead 39-35 with the clock reading 11:11, the Lady Monarchs held the Hornets scoreless over the next four and half minutes while rattling off eight unanswered points. Ransburg capped the ODU run with two of her nine second half points to return a double figure edge back to the Lady Monarchs. Old Dominion went ahead 47-35 at the 6:58 mark and kept a double digit advantage over Delaware State for almost the rest of the way.
The Lady Monarchs, who were uncharacteristically outrebounded in their last game, returned to outboard the Hornets, 48-34. Triggs led ODU with seven rebounds.
Old Dominion shot 42.2 (19-of-45) from the floor, but only shot 45.7 percent from the free throw line (16-of-35). Triggs did manage to go perfect hitting all four free throw attempts. The Lady Monarchs held the Hornets to 29.0 percent (18-of-62) from the floor, the lowest percentage by an ODU opponent this season.
The Lady Monarchs return to action Wednesday, November 29th when they travel to #5 Duke. The Blue Devils will be Old Dominion's first top ten opponent of the season and second from the top 25.