MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The Old Dominion men’s basketball team (14-10, 7-5 C-USA) fell to first place and defending Conference USA champs Middle Tennessee [RV] (21-4, 11-1 C-USA) by a 64-51 score on Thursday night. B.J. Stith (six rebounds) paced the Monarchs with 17 points, Ahmad Caver (three assists, two rebounds and two steals) went for 13, while Trey Porter (three rebounds) followed with 10.
Trey Porter cut ODU’s deficit to nine, 39-30, at the 14:01 mark of the second half. A Jordan Baker steal led to a B.J. Stith dunk to bring the Monarchs within six, 48-42, with 8:20 remaining in regulation. The Blue Raiders answered with a 16-4 run, claiming a 64-46 advantage with 2:47 to play, before ultimately claiming a 13-point victory on Thursday night.
“Middle Tennessee is a very good basketball team,” said ODU head coach Jeff Jones. “Against such a good team, there is so little room for error and we had some uncharacteristic errors tonight. There were times we played some very good defense and Middle Tennessee still hit big time shots. We have to work our way through this and find a way to get better.”
Denzell Taylor finished with five points, a game-high 10 rebounds, three assists and one steal. For the game, Old Dominion held a 26-18 advantage for points in the paint.
In a first half that the Monarchs trailed by as many as 14, ODU was down by 11, 32-21, at halftime. Ahmad Caver led all scorers in the opening 20 minutes with nine points.
Old Dominion will be back in action this Saturday, Feb. 11 at UAB for a 8:00 p.m. EST tip, which will air on the American Sports Network.
Game | Date | Time | Network | Cox | Verizon | DirectTV |
ODU at UAB | Feb. 11 | 8 p.m. ET | ASN | 1 / 1002 HD | 11 / 511 HD | 33 HD |
ALL-TIME SERIES: ODU vs. UAB
-Saturday will mark the thirtieth all-time meeting between these two schools.
-UAB leads the all-time series, 20-9.
-UAB won the last meeting between the two last season in OT, 72-71, snapping ODU’s 32 game home winning streak.
-These two teams first met during the 1982-83 season, which resulted in a Monarchs loss on the road, 71-60.
SINGLE-GAME TICKETS
Single-game tickets for Old Dominion University men’s basketball are on sale now at www.ynottix.com or by calling 757-683-4444.
For group pricing (10+), please call Todd McKeating at 757-683-7087.
All ODU students get in free all year long.
VOUCHER BOOKS
The voucher book includes 10 ticket vouchers that can be redeemed for tickets to any remaining home men’s basketball games. The tickets can be used all at once to bring a family or group of friends or spread out amongst multiple games. If you run out of vouchers, simply come back and purchase another voucher book. At just $99 per voucher book, it represents more than $70, or 40%, savings over face value.
FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For a more in-depth look into the men’s basketball program, be sure to follow @ODUMBB on Twitter, ‘ODU Basketball’ on Facebook and odu_mbb on Instagram.