NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion men’s basketball team (1-0, 0-0 C-USA) withstood a late Towson (0-1, 0-0 CAA) rally to hold off the Tigers by a 57-54 score in the 2017-18 regular season opener on Friday night at the Ted Constant Convocation Center. The Monarchs defense would hold Towson without a made field goal over an 8:47 span in the second half, which helped propel ODU to victory.
The Monarchs never trailed in the second half and led by as many as nine with 11:38 to play in the contest. Over a 3:28 span starting at the 4:14 mark, Towson went on a 9-0 run to trim its deficit to one, 55-54, with 46 seconds remaining in regulation but wouldn’t score for the rest of the game, as two Xavier Green free-throws with 0.3 seconds remaining sealed the deal for the Monarchs in their 57-54 win in front of 6,279 fans.
“Give Towson credit, they are a tough team,” said ODU head coach Jeff Jones. “This was a quality game and we are happy to win. Towson is a very well balanced team and there weren’t many easy opportunities to score for either team tonight, so we had to gut this one out. Now we have a quick turnaround on the road and will face a tough JMU team in Harrisonburg on Monday.”
For the game, B.J. Stith paced the Monarchs with 15 points on 7-12 shooting from the floor, while Ahmad Caver finished with 10 points and five rebounds. In his first career collegiate half, Xavier Green led Old Dominion in scoring with seven points and finished with nine. Trey Porter hauled down a team-high seven rebounds in the win.
ODU won the turnover battle, 16-8, and held a 20-14 advantage for points off turnovers for the game. The Monarchs defense held the Tigers to 34.5% (19-55) shooting from the floor for the game.
Old Dominion will return to action on Monday, Nov. 13, when the Monarchs travel to Harrisonburg for a showdown against James Madison at 7:00 p.m. Fans can watch the stream for FREE on Monday night at this link: https://portal.stretchinternet.com/jmu/portal.htm?eventId=404831&streamType=video