Dec. 18, 2006
NORFOLK, VA - Senior Valdas Vasylius highlighted the night for the Monarchs as he tallied his 1,000th career point with an impressive performance overall. The Monarchs pieced together another victory winning 56-42 and improved to 8-3 on the season. ODU dropped the former Sun Belt Conference rival Blazers of UAB to 6-5. Brian Henderson paced ODU with 14 points and Vasylius with 11 points, five rebounds and five assists.
ODU stormed to a 20-point lead in the first half as the Blazers struggled from the field. With 3:53 remaining the Monarchs led 31-11 and UAB had only hit four field goals. The Blazers were abysmal from beyond the arc, their usual strength, going just 1-for-10 from outside. In contrast, the Monarchs smoked five long balls in the first half and kept a steady hand on defense grabbing six steals and three blocks.
The first half ended with the Monarchs on top 31-17. Neither team shot particularly well with the Monarchs at a 37 percent clip and the Blazers hitting 25 percent of their shots. At the half Vasylius had already made the headlines putting 10 points on the board and reaching the 1,000-point plateau.
The second half was much of the same story for the Monarchs, but the Blazers played with a higher intensity than in the first. UAB cut the lead to seven in the second but that would be the closest it would get. Although nailing four three-pointers in the second half was an improvement, they still ended shooting just 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from outside.
ODU struggled from the field still and finished a season-worst 15-of-46 (32.6 percent) but it was enough to put away the Blazers as the Birmingham ball club shot 30.4 percent. With stingy defense and impressive rebounding ODU held onto the lead. The Monarchs forced 13 turnovers stealing the ball nine times and adding four blocks. They outrebounded UAB 40-31 grabbing 11 offensive boards.
Henderson finished with three long balls as the team grabbed eight and led all scorers with 14 points. Another guard with a big night was Brandon Johnson who added eight points and seven rebounds. The 6-1 junior continuously grabbed rebounds in the paint surrounded by bigger and taller players.
Vasylius night highlighted the evening with his big basket and then great eyes from the block. The senior tallied five assists and five rebounds and added a steal and a block as well. Gerald Lee offered 23 hustle minutes as he didn't show as well in the stat book, but his effort contributed to a number of Monarch scores.
Wen Mukubu led the Blazers with 14 points and eight rebounds on 6-of-13 shooting. Mukubu also added two steals and an assist.
The teams combined to launch 39 three-point attempts and also tallied 38 fouls in front of a raucous group of 5,562 fans. It was just the third time the Monarchs had been held to less than 60 points on the season.
ODU will take another big break before their next game against Winthrop. Tip is scheduled for 7:00 pm next Friday, December 29.