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NORFOLK, Va. - JoNiquia Guilford scored a career-high 14 points but Old Dominion's late comeback fell short as the Lady Monarchs fell to Maryland Eastern Shore 63-59 Wednesday at the Ted Constant Center.
Down eight with under two minutes to play, the Old Dominion (3-9) got back in the game with nine quick points to cut the lead to one with 29 seconds left on a three-point play from Guilford.
Kwinyatta Mercer hit a pair of foul shots for UMES (3-7), with ODU missing a shot the next time down the court, but Shanyce Stewart miss two free throws to give ODU a chance, but the Lady Monarchs turned the ball over and Chelsea Sanders hit a foul shot to ice the game.
UMES came out strong to start the second half, building their lead up to six before ODU fought back to cut the lead to one at 37-36 on a jumper from Tia Lewis.
The Hawks stretched the lead back to six on a three-pointer from Kwinnyata Mercer to take a 49-43 advantage and Chelsea Sanders hit another three push the lead to nine.
The Lady Monarchs cut the lead to four with a quick 5-0 spurt, but the Hawks came right back with a running jumper from Sanders.
ODU jumped out to a 6-3 lead on a pair of jumpers from JoNiquia Guilford. UMES cut the lead to one on a jumper from Adobi Agbasi but Ashley Betz-White got the lead back to three on a steal and layup.
UMES took their first lead of the game on a layup from Shanyce Stewart but ODU came right back with a layup from Myeisha Hall off a nice back door pass from Queen Tiye Jackson.
After the Hawks took the lead at 16-14, Jackie Cook hit a three to give ODU the lead back but UMES followed with a 7-0 run to take a 24-17 lead. ODU stopped the run on a jumper from Cook.
ODU followed with their own 7-0 run to tie the game on a short jumper from Guilford but Agbasi hit a layup to give UMES a 26-24 halftime lead.
The score was tight throughout the first half as the largest lead of the half was six by Maryland Eastern Shore.
Tia Lewis finished with her fifth double-double of the season, scoring 11 points, all in the second half and 12 boards. Guilford was 5-of-12 from the floor and had six rebounds to go along with her 14 points.
Sanders finished with a game-high 22 points while Agbasi had 19 points and seven rebounds.
The crowd of 4,749 was the largest this season. Just under 2,000 students from the Norfolk public school system attended the game.
The Lady Monarchs are back in action at Tennessee Wednesday, Dec. 28 at 7 p.m.