Dec. 3, 2006
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- The Lady Monarchs rallied from a 20-point second half deficit and outscored the Lady Lions, 44-33, in the second half in its 77-80 loss to Penn State on Sunday afternoon at the Bryce Jordan Center.
Old Dominion falls to 2-4 on the season, while the Lady Lions snapped a five-game losing streak to improve to 5-5 overall. For the seventh time in the series, the home team has walked away with the victory.
Behind 55-35 a minute and a half into the second half, Old Dominion proceeded to take a 16-4 run to cut the Lady Lion lead to single digits. During the final strech of the run, Old Dominion managed to score 10 unanswered points to trail just 59-51 with 12:30 remaining in the game.
Free throws by Amanda Brown and a jumper by Kamela Gissendanner helped Penn State bump their lead to 12, 63-51 at the 11:33 mark, but Old Dominion managed to take another run and cut into the Lady Lion lead. Old Dominion outscored Penn State, 7-2, over the course of the next two minutes. Junior Tay Ransburg (Kansas City, Mo.) converted the traditional three-point play to pull the Lady Monarchs to within three, 65-62, with 9:23 left.
The Lady Monarchs refused to go away and continued to chip away at the lead until junior Shahida Williams (Newark, N.J.) converted her jumper to tie the game at 68-68. After each team traded baskets on respective turns down the court, junior T.J. Jordan (Portsmouth, Va.) drained one of her five three's to give Old Dominion its first lead since 13:41 mark of the first half. Jordan's trey gave the Lady Monarchs a 73-72 advantage with 3:02 remaining in the game.
The final 2:14 saw two ties, two lead changes, and ten free throws, with eight of them taken by Penn State going 6-of-8. Following Jordan's three, Brown took two free throws to return the lead back to the Lady Lions and a Tyra Grant lay-up extended the Penn State lead to three, 76-73. The lead returned in favor of the Lady Monarchs quickly though. ODU's top free throw shooter, Tish Lyons (Newport News, Va.), swished both her free throw attempts on the following trip down the court and Williams grabbed a missed Lady Lion bucket to race down the court and lay the ball up and in. The 77-76 Lady Monarch lead at the 1:13 mark would be Old Dominion's final of the night.
Penn State closed out the game hitting free throws to regain the lead and win. Meanwhile, Jordan had two different looks at shots from beyond the arc to try and win the game for the Lady Monarchs. Her first came with 36 seconds remaining being tightly guarded by the Lady Lions and her second came at the buzzer but fell short.
Jordan led the Lady Monarchs with a season-high 24 points. It was her second 20+ point effort of the year. Ransburg and Williams joined Jordan in double figures. Ransburg had 17 points 7-of-7 from the field and 2-of-2 from the line. Williams added in 17.
Penn State was led by Tyra Grant with 29 points folowed by Amanda Brown with 18 and Gissendanner with 12.
Old Dominion won the battle of the boards, 39-33. Williams grabbed a game-high eight rebounds in the loss.
The Lady Monarchs rebounded from its 26.0 percent shooting performance at #5 Duke to finish the night at 46.9 percent (30-of-64), including a 52.9 percent (18-of-34) second half.
The Lady Monarchs return to action hosting Chicago State on Saturday, December 9th at 7:00 p.m. in the first ever meeting between the two schools. The Cougars are coached by former Lady Monarch standout Angela Jackson. Jackson was a member of the Lady Monarchs in 1989 and 1990, helping the Old Dominion women's basketball team to two second round appearances in the NCAA. As a senior in 1990, she was named First Team All-Sun Belt averaging a team second best 16.6 points per game. Additionally, the Lady Monarchs will look to give head coach Wendy Larry her 500th career win.