March 9, 2007
NEWARK, Del. -- The top-seeded Old Dominion women's basketball team advanced to the semifinals of 2007 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Women's Basketball Tournament with 66-55 win over ninth-seeded Drexel on Friday afternoon at the Bob Carpenter Center.
The Lady Monarchs will take on fourth-seeded Hofstra in the semifinals on Saturday at noon. The game will be available on CN8, Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast (CSS), SportsNet New York (SNY) (tape delay 4:00 PM), WSKY (Hampton Roads, VA) (tape delay 6:00 PM). It will also be available on your computer via www.cn8.com.
Junior T.J. Jordan (Portsmouth,Va.) led the Lady Monarchs with 17 points while fellow starter Sherida Triggs (Norcross, Ga.) added in 14 and sophomore Tiffany Green chipping in 17. Narissa Suber had a game-high 20 points in the loss for the Dragons and CAA Rookie of the Year Gabriela Marginean posted her seventh double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
With the score tied at 21-21 with 5:06 remaining in the second half, the Lady Monarchs went on a 9-0 fueled by two three-pointer by Jordan and four points from senior Shantel Wilson (Washington, D.C.). Old Dominion went into the half up 34-25.
Although Triggs would score the first eight ODU points of the second half, Drexel managed to cut its deficit to three. The Dragons outscored the Lady Monarchs 10-4 in the first five minutes of the second half as Old Dominion held on to a 38-35 advantage with 15:19 left in the game.
Another Lady Monarchs run ensued. This time Old Dominion used a 8-0 run for a 11-points46-35 lead with 12:29 and would go on to lead by as many as 14.
The Dragons did not go quietly though. Green converted a traditional three-point play as the Lady Monarchs led 57-47 with 4:28 left in the game. Free throws by Marginean and a lay-up by Delise Johnson cut the Drexel deficit to six, but the Dragons would shoot 2-of-8 down the stretch. The Lady Monarchs meanwhile regained its double digit lead to close out the game.
The Lady Monarchs went 17-of-19 from the free throw line to hit 89.5 percent of their shots from the charity stripe, the second best performance in a game this season. Jordan went a perfect 6-of-6, including a pair of shots in the closing seconds of the game which pushed the ODU lead back up to double figures. Senior Tish Lyons (Newport News, Va.) also went a perfect 5-of-5.
CAA TOURNAMENT SEMIFINAL NOTES:
The 15-time defending Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Old Dominion women's basketball team took one step closer in its quest for its 16th cosecutive title with a 66-55 win over Drexel in Friday's quarterfinals.
Since joining the CAA in the 1991-92 season, Old Dominion has captured the league tournament title each season and owns a 45-0 record in CAA Tournament action. The Lady Monarchs moved to 15-0 in quarterfinal action with Friday's victory over Drexel.
Junior guard T.J. Jordan's team-leading 17 points against Drexel moved her into 23rd on the ODU all-time scoring leaders list with 1,053 career points, surpassing Rhonda Rompola (1978-81). She needs 32 more points to move into 22nd place past WNBA fourth-round draftee Sharron Francis (1998-2002).
Jordan is also closing in on the three-point field goals made record at Old Dominion. The third year Lady Monarchs moved her career total to 93 with three treys in the CAA quarterfinal win over Drexel. Aubrey Eblin still holds the record with 97 made shots from downtown during the 1997-98 season.
The Lady Monarchs will face the fourth-seeded Hofstra Pride in the semifinals on Saturday at noon. Old Dominion holds a 14-1 overall mark against the Pride including a pair of victories this season. Old Dominion won the first meeting 74-59 back on January 14th at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk and then swept the season series with a 69-62 win in Hempstead back on February 4th. The Lady Monarchs have swept the season series in five of the six seasons the two have been conference rivals.
It will be the third meeting with the Pride in the CAA Tournament, where the Lady Monarchs own a 3-0 record against Hofstra. Saturday's semifinal will mark the second consecutive season the two teams play each other for a spot in the CAA championship game. It is also the third straight time in CAA Tournament action the Pride and Lady Monarchs have played on the date March 10th.
The two have met twice in the quarterfinals, first in 2003 with ODU taking an 88-46 victory at the Ted Constant Convocation Center in Norfolk. The second quarterfinal meeting came in 2005 as Old Dominion defeated Hofstra, 87-68, in the Patriot Center.
Last season, the Lady Monarchs advanced to the championship game against James Madison with a 94-53 semifinal win over Hofstra at the Patriot Center. Everyone scored for the Lady Monarchs, which included a season-tying 23 points by junior T.J. Jordan and a career-high nine points by former Lady Monarch Angie Brown. Joining Jordan in double figures was former Lady Monarch Paula Muxiri with 14, Tish Lyons with 12, and former Lady Monarch Lawona Davis with 10.
The average margin of victory over the Pride in the CAA Tournament has been 28 points.
In the two regular season meetings this year, Old Dominion has outscored the Hofstra bench, 43-5.