NORFOLK, Va. -- The Old Dominion women’s basketball team will welcome North Texas and Rice to the Ted Constant Center this weekend for the final two regular season games. The Lady Monarchs will face the Mean Green on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. and will take on the Owls on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Saturday’s contest also marks senior day for ODU.
HOW TO TUNE IN
Thursday’s contest against the Mean Green the will be streamed through Monarch Media and the C-USA Digital Network, while being broadcast on STAR 1310 AM with Doug Ripley on the call starting at 6:30 p.m. (ET). Fans can also follow live stats.
Saturday’s game with the Owls will once again be streamed through Monarch Media and the C-USA Digital Network. The radio broadcast will be housed on STAR 1310 AM, with the show beginning at 12:30 p.m. (ET). Live stats will also be available once the game starts.
ABOUT ODU
The Lady Monarchs enter the last regular season week with a 12-16 overall record and an 8-8 mark in C-USA action. Last week, ODU dropped two games in Texas, falling to the conference’s top team UTEP and UTSA.
Karen Barefoot, in her fifth season at the helm of the ODU women’s basketball program, has helped the program become one of the top defensive teams in Conference USA. The Lady Monarchs rank first in the conference in rebounding margin (+6.5), second in field goal percentage defense (.395), fourth in scoring defense (63.2) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.294) and fifth in scoring margin (+3.0). Individually, Ije Ajemba is a force on the defensive end, pulling in 8.4 rebounds per game and is fourth on the team with 22 steals. In the thrilling win at Middle Tennessee, she corralled a career-high six steals.
Jennie Simms leads the way offensively and notched a season-high 39 points in ODU’s loss to UTSA, becoming the only C-USA player to score 35-plus points on three occasions this season. She has four 35-plus performances for her career, which is the second most in ODU women’s basketball history behind Anne Donovan who has six. Simms also set a new ODU single-game record for free-throws made and attempted when she went 18-for-21 from the free-throw line at UTSA. The previous record for attempts was set by Lucienne Berthieu against Southern Methodist (12-19) on Mar. 20, 2000. The mark for free-throws made was set by Shareese Grant (17-18) against Rutgers on Dec. 5, 2004. The two-time C-USA Player of the Week tops the conference with 21.4 points in C-USA games and is first overall with 20.3 points per outing. Her overall point total also ranks 27th in the nation.
Destinee Young is also a threat on offense, nearly averaging a double-double with 10.8 points and 8.4 boards. She broke her career high with 17 rebounds against UTEP, which also marked the first time an ODU player notched 16-plus rebounds in one game since Shae Kelley pulled in 16 against UMass Lowell in 2013. Young became the first Lady Monarch to record back-to-back double-double this season after she poured in 28 points and 15 rebounds against Loyola and then 17 points and 11 rebounds at Howard. She notched two-consecutive double-doubles two more times during this season, most recently with 13 points and 10 rebounds against Marshall and 17 points and a career-high 17 rebounds against UTEP.
ABOUT NORTH TEXAS
North Texas (10-16, 5-11) stunned Southern Miss at the Super Pit last Saturday after a last second shot from Acheil Tac lifted the Mean Green to a 57-55 victory on senior day. The Mean Green rallied from a five-point deficit in the fourth, led by Tac, who finished with 14 points, and Kelsey Criner with a team-high 18 points and six steals.
Four players average double-figures for the Mean Green, led by Criner’s 13.0 points, to go along with her 5.0 assists and 2.6 steals per contest. Tac chips in 11.0 points and leads the team with 8.5 rebounds per outing.
On April 9, 2015, Jalie Mitchell returned to her alma mater to become the eighth head coach of the North Texas women’s basketball program. She finished as the Mean Green’s all-time leading scorer with 1,764 points and tops the list of career free throws made and attempted.
ABOUT RICE
In Rice’s last contest, Shani Rainey poured in a career-high 26 points and Maya Hawkins contributed another 25 points to help lead the Owls to an 84-77 victory over LA Tech in the home finale at Tudor Fieldhouse. The win marked the Owls (8-19, 7-9) fourth win in their last five games and in the process, secured a first round bye at the C-USA Championships.
Jasmine Goodwine leads Rice with 12.2 points, while pulling in a team-high 6.0 rebounds per contest. Rainey is not far behind with 11.4 points and 5.3 rebounds, while Hawkins chips in 10.7 points and leads the team with 4.4 assists an outing.
Tina Langley was named the fifth head coach of the Rice women’s basketball program during the summer of 2015. She spent the last seven seasons serving as Maryland’s associate head coach, compiling a 195-49 record during that time.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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