BOWLING GREEN, Kent. – In a ballgame which experienced 10 lead changes and seven ties, it was the 2014-15 C-USA regular season champions of Western Kentucky (24-7, 16-2) who prevailed over Old Dominion (18-11, 11-7) in a physical back-and-forth affair by a score of 71-62 on Saturday afternoon at E.A. Diddle Arena. Jennie Simms recorded her 10th double-double of the season and fifth in the past seven contests, netting 27 points and a career-high tying 14 rebounds.
Old Dominion will either be the No. 4 or No. 5 seed in the Conference USA Tournament next week in Birmingham, Alabama. UTSA plays North Texas tonight at 8:00 p.m. EST. If UTSA wins, ODU will get the No. 5 seed, if North Texas wins then Old Dominion will be the No. 4 seed. The top four seeds receive a first round bye.
Saturday’s game also marked Senior Day for three Lady Hilltoppers. WKU snapped ODU’s four game-winning streak, and has now won nine in a row.
Destinee Young nearly compiled a double-double, tallying 12 points to compliment nine rebounds for the contest. Chelisa Painter went for nine points and four rebounds.
At the under-eight media timeout of the second half, the score was all tied at 52-52, moments later the Lady Toppers used a 12-2 run over a two and half minute span to take a 64-54 lead with 3:30 to play in regulation.
Annika Holpainen drilled a three to cut the Lady Monarchs deficit to six, 66-60, with 1:49 to play in the contest. WKU’s Alexis Govan then hit a running floater as the shot-clock was expiring to lift the Lady Toppers lead back to eight, 68-60, with 1:19 remaining, before ultimately claiming a 71-62 win over the Lady Monarchs on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Monarchs got off to a hot start in the first half, behind six early points from senior Chelisa Painter, to put ODU ahead 8-2 at the 16:39 mark. The Lady Toppers answered with a 10-2 run, bringing the count to 12-10 with 14:05 showing on the game-clock. By the second media timeout, Western Kentucky stretched its lead to 17-11, making it a 15-3 run for WKU.
The Lady Monarchs stormed back using a 8-2 run to bring the score to 21-19 with 7:39 remaining in the opening 20 minutes. A made Jennie Simms three-pointer put a halt to WKU’s 9-2 run, bringing the score to 30-24 in favor of Western Kentucky at the 3:37 mark. Jennie Simms banked in a three-pointer as the first half game-clock expired, leaving the score at 35-31 in favor of the Lady Toppers heading into the locker rooms at halftime.
Destinee Young scored 10 first half points and hauled down a half-high eight rebounds. Simms also scored 10, to go along with four rebounds. Chelisa Painter followed with seven points. WKU’s Kendall Noble led the way the Lady Toppers in the first half, with 10 points.
A made Chelisa Painter lay-up off a Destinee Young assisted in-bounds pass, gave ODU a 39-38 lead with 16:42 to play in the second half. Simms drilled a three-pointer while leading a fast-break to give the Lady Monarchs a 48-47 advantage with 11:46 to go. By the under-eight media timeout, the ballgame was all tied up at 52 apiece, before the Lady Toppers went on a 12-2 run to propel WKU to a 71-62 victory on Saturday afternoon.
Chasity Gooch led four players in double-figures for Western Kentucky with 20 points to go along with 11 rebounds. Also in double-digits for WKU were: Alexis Govan (12 points), Micah Jones (11 points) and Kendall Noble (10 points).
For the ballgame, Old Dominion connected on 37.9% (22-58) from the floor, 23.5% (4-17) from deep and 82.4% (14-17) from the charity stripe. Western Kentucky shot 45.6% (25-57) from the floor, 35.3% (6-17) from three and 56.5% (13-23) from free-throw line.
NEXT UP FOR THE LADY MONARCHS
This concludes the 2014-15 regular season for Old Dominion. Next stop will be Birmingham, Alabama for the Conference USA Tournament held on March 11-14.
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