Jan. 8, 2009
WILMINGTON, N.C. -- With all the post players in foul trouble throughout the night, the Old Dominion women's basketball team remained poised down the stretch to defeat UNC-Wilmington, 79-70, in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) action Thursday night at Trask Coliseum. Sophomores Vicki Collier (Upper Marlboro, Md.), Sierra Little (Greensboro, N.C.), and Alena "Russia" Voronina (Brisbane, Australia) all came off the bench to capture career numbers in helping the Lady Monarchs to victory.
The victory gave Old Dominion its first road win of the season as they improved to 7-5 overall and 2-0 in the CAA. The Seahawks fell to 38-0 all-time against the Lady Monarchs and dropped to 7-6 overall and 1-1 in league play.
Old Dominion led by just two, 34-32, at the half, thanks in part to its post spending the opening stanza in foul trouble. Senior Tiffany Green (Chesapeake, Va.), sophomore Sierra Little (Greensboro, N.C.), and freshman Mairi Buchan (Sterlingshire, Scotland) spent the last 11 minutes with at least two fouls and with 4:48 remaining in the half, all available posts had two or more fouls. In all, the first half endured 25 fouls.
UNC-Wilmington scored nine of its last 13 points of the half from the charity stripe to help close the gap to what was once a nine-point Lady Monarch advantage.
The Seahawks took over the lead in the second half, leading by six, 49-43 with 12:10 remaining. Vicki Collier, who finished the night with a season-high eight points, helped start a 14-3 run that returned the lead for good to the Lady Monarchs. During the run, Jazzmin Walters (Norfolk, Va.) found the gap for lay-up to tie the game for the seventh and final time at 58-58 with less than seven minutes left. On the next play, senior captain Jen Nuzzo (Newport News, Va.) capitalized on a UNC-Wilmington turnover. Nuzzo would end up at the line shooting two and returning an edge to Old Dominion they would never lose.
The Lady Monarchs led by as many as 10 down the stretch.
Along with Collier's career-high eight points, Little reset her mark with a career-high seven points, and Voronina playing in a career-high 13 minutes went 3-of-3 from the field to collect a career-high six points.
Old Dominion was led by Walters with 13 points along with seven assists. Nuzzo added in 12.
UNC-Wilmington had three in double figures led by Sasha Taylor with 19 points. Greta Luksyte added in 14 and Brittany Blackwell, the only player to foul out of the game, finished with 10 points.
The Lady Monarchs shot a season-high 50.9 percent (29-of-57) from the field.
The Old Dominion women's basketball team returns to action on Sunday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at Northeastern.