March 19, 2009
NORFOLK, VA-- Keyon Carter scored a career hightying 17 points and Darius James added 13 pointswith eight assists to lead the ODU Monarchs to a67-59 win over The Citadel in the first round of the Collegeinsider.com Post season Tournament.
The win was the 300th career victory for ODUhead coach Blaine Taylor.
The Monarchs led by nine at halftime, 33-24 as James scored nine points, Ben Finneyhad seven and Carter added six points iwth seven rebounds. Demetrius Nelson hadnine for The Citadel.
In the second half, the Bulldogs rallied from a 35-25 deficit with 19:22 left in thegame to taking a 38-37 lead with 15:26 left after a three-pointer by Zach Urbnus.
The lead went back and forth until Frank Hassell's layup with 8:34 left put theMonarchs up for good at 49-48. ODU then led by as many as nine, 66-57 as theypulled away for the victory.
Demetrius Nelson, an All-SoCon selection led all scorers with 25 points along with seven rebounds for The Citadel. John Brown led the Bulldogs with 10 reboundswhile Zach Urbanus scored 10 and Cameron Wells added 13. The Citadel shot .439 (25-57) from the field, but only hit 3-19 (.158) from three.
ODU shot .456 (26-57) from the floor as Carter was 8-for-12, and James was 5-for-8from the floor. The Monarchs also outrebounded The Citadel, 37-33, led by Carter'snine boards.
Taylor is now 300-159 in 15 years as a collegiate head coach.
ODU will host Belmont on Monday in the Quarterfinals at 7 p.m. in the Ted ConstantConvvcation Center. The winner will meet the winner of the Liberty-JMU game onWednesday in the semi-finals.