PRINCESS ANNE, Md. -- The Old Dominion Lady Monarchs defeated the University of Maryland Eastern Shore Hawks by a 69-52 margin on the road on Tuesday afternoon in Hytche Arena.
With the win, Old Dominion moved to 4-7 overall, while the UMES Hawks fell to 3-10 on the season. Jennie Simms led the Lady Monarchs with 19 points, six rebounds, two assists and two steals. Destinee Young added 16 points and a team-high nine boards, while Keyana Brown chipped in 12 points. Carolina Bernardeco once again quarterbacked the offense and dished out a game-high five assists.
The Lady Monarchs started the game slowly, only scoring four points in the first six minutes of play and found themselves down 8-4. However, ODU responded and went on a 10-2 run in the final four minutes to hold a 14-10 lead at the end of the first quarter. Jennie Simms led the way with seven points and two rebounds for Old Dominion.
Old Dominion opened the second period with a defensive mindset and held UMES scoreless for the first 3:59, while scoring 12 points to increase its lead to 26-10 with 6:01 left until half time. The Lady Monarchs would put together a 10-5 spurt over the final 4:50, led by five points from Gianna Smith to hold the 36-17 advantage at the intermission.
ODU shutout the Hawks (20-0) in the paint and scored 14 points off of 13 UMES turnovers in the first half. As a team, the Lady Monarchs shot 39.4 percent (13-33) from the floor and went 8-of-9 from the charity stripe for 88.9 percent. The ODU defense held the Hawks to just 26.1 percent shooting (6-23) and 11.1 percent (1-9) from the three-point line during the first 20 minutes of play.
The Hawks opened the third period with a 7-0 run, forcing the Lady Monarchs to take a timeout with 7:34 on the clock and regroup. Old Dominion responded to the UMES offensive pressure and outscored the Hawks 20-12 the rest of the way to hold the 20-point advantage (56-36) with just the fourth period left to play. The Hawks out-scored the Lady Monarchs 16-13 in the final period, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the deficit, as Old Dominion defeated UMES 69-52
For the game, ODU shot 39.7 percent from the field (25-63), while holding UMES to 35.2 percent (19-54) and 2-of-16 from the three-point line (12.5).ODU also outscored UMES 22-8 in bench points. UMES did hold the advantage in rebounds, grabbing just one more than the Lady Monarchs (40-39).
UP NEXT FOR ODU
The Lady Monarchs will take a week off from competition, before heading to William & Mary on December 29 to square off in Kaplan Arena at 5:00 p.m. against the Tribe. ODU holds a commanding 56-4 in the overall series that dates back to 1969. The Lady Monarchs are currently on a three-game winning streak over the Tribe and defeated W&M 65-58 last season (11.17) at the Ted Constant Center.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Be sure to follow ODU Women’s Basketball on Twitter (@ODUWBB) and Instagram (@oduwbasketball) and ‘Like’ the ODU Lady Monarch Basketball on Facebook to stay up to date with the latest news and coverage.