Jan. 7, 2007
NORFOLK, Va. -- The Old Dominion women's basketball team made it three in a row as they defeated Drexel, 70-45, on Sunday afternoon at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
The Lady Monarch have put back-to-back-to-back victories together for the first time this season to improve to 6-7 overall and 2-0 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play. Meanwhile, the Dragons fall to 5-9 overall and 0-3 in conference action.
Old Dominion led much of the way. After a back and forth battle in the opening minutes, junior Tay Ransburg (Kansas City, Mo.) collected the first of her nine points on a bucket which would give the Lady Monarchs the lead for good. Her jumper put the Lady Monarchs ahead, 5-4, with 17:23 on the clock.
Leading by only two, 11-9, Lady Monarch leading scorer T.J. Jordan (Portsmouth, Va.) sunk one of her trademark three-pointers to spark a 10-0 run. With six minutes remaining in the half, Old Dominion had established a 12 point lead, 21-9.
Drexel managed to cut their deficit to five thanks to consecutive three pointers by Narissa Suber. Her second three gave Old Dominion only a 24-19 edge with 4:03 to go.
Old Dominion held tough during the final minutes of the first half, outscoring Drexel 8-3 during those final four minutes to re-establish a double figure lead and enter the lockerroom up 33-22.
The Dragons held the Lady Monarchs without a bucket during the opening three minutes of the second half and pulled to within five once again. Nicole McCombs, who only played four minutes of the first half for Drexel due to foul trouble, started off the second rattling off six straight points. She went 4-of-4 from the free throw line and added in a jumper to close the gap to 33-28. However, that would be the closest the Dragons would get the rest of the afternoon.
Ahead by nine, 44-35, with 12:03 left in the game, the Lady Monarchs used another 10-0 run to go ahead by double digits for good. The run saw senior Tish Lyons (Newport News, Va.) go a perfect 4-of-4 from the line and sophomore Jen Nuzzo (Newport News, Va.) come off the bench to sink a three. By the end of the Drexel scoring drought, Old Dominion had a 19-point 54-35 lead that they would continue to expand by as much as 25.
The foul plagued second half saw the Lady Monarchs go to the line 13 times, making 11 shots. They shot 84.6 for the half from the charity stripe and a season-high 76.0 percent for the game.
Jordan once again led the Lady Monarchs in scoring pouring in a game-high 18 points which included a perfect 5-of-5 effort from the line and three made shots from downtown. Drexel had two in double figures with Gabriela Marginean and Narissa Suber each contributing 10 points each.
Old Dominion held a slight edge on the boards, 36-34. Junior Shahida Williams (Newark, N.J.) and senior Shantel Wilson (Washington, D.C.) led the ODU rebounding corps with five boards a piece. Both collected four offensive rebounds. Delise Johnson came off the Dragon bench to haul in a game-high nine rebounds.
The Lady Monarchs continue to be home next week as they host Georgia State on Thursday, January 11th at 7:00 p.m. and Hofstra, on Sunday January 14th, at 2:00 p.m.