Jan. 20, 2010
NEWARK, Del. - Junior's Darius James and Ben Finney combined for 32 points as Old Dominion rolled past Colonial Athletic Association foe Delaware, 68-49, for its sixth straight victory Wednesday evening at the Bob Carpenter Center.
Old Dominion (15-5, 7-1 CAA), which is receiving votes in both the Associated Press Top 25 and ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll, has won nine of its last 10 games.
Finney scored a game-high 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds. The junior from Portsmouth has now tallied 36 points in his last two outings.
James posted a season-high 15 points, including 10 in the first half. Sophomore Kent Bazemore dished out five of ODU's 16 assists.
The Monarch defense, which is ranked fourth nationally in points allowed per game, held its eighth opponent under 50 points this season.
Old Dominion forced Delaware (5-14, 1-7) to shoot 36 percent (18-of-50) from the floor, while the Monarchs went 9-for-22 from beyond the arc (40.9 percent) and outscored the Blue Hens 39-25 in the second half.
Finney scored the first seven Old Dominion points and James rattled off the next five to give the Monarchs a 12-6 lead at the 14:20 mark.
Delaware roared back with a 10-3 run, capped by back-to-back three-point field goals from the CAA's second leading scorer Jawan Carter. The junior's second triple gave UD their first lead at 16-15.
The Blue Hens increased their lead to as many as four, but ODU closed the half on a 12-3 run to go into the intermission with a 29-24 lead. James had five of his 10 first half points during the run.
The second half started very much like the first with Finney and James scoring ODU's first five points to give the Monarchs a 10-point advantage (34-24) just four minutes in.
Delaware mounted another comeback, going on a 16-8 run to get within a single bucket (42-40). Junior Alphonso Dawson canned two three-point field goals during the Blue Hen run.
Consecutive three-pointers from junior Keyon Carter and senior Marsharee Neely sparked a 10-2 ODU run that gave the Monarchs their double-digit lead back at 52-42. After a Delaware triple from Dawson, ODU registered the next seven points to push the lead to 14 (59-45).
The Blue Hens would get no closer than 12 the remainder of the game.
Old Dominion held Carter, who entered the game averaging 17.5 points per game, to just 11 points on 4-of-14 shooting. Carter has tallied only 16 points in two games versus ODU and has shot 5-of-26 from the field in those contests.
The Monarchs, who defeated the Hens 65-44 earlier this season at the Constant Center, swept the season series and downed Delaware for the third straight time and for the eighth time in the last nine meetings.
Old Dominion will remain on the road Saturday, Jan. 23 traveling to William & Mary. Tip-time is set for 7 p.m. in Williamsburg. The contest will be televised live back to the Hampton Roads area on WSKY TV 4.
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