WASHINGTON - In its season opener, the Old Dominion (0-1) women's basketball team dropped a 55-37 contest at George Washington (2-0) Saturday afternoon. Junior Amari Young scored 10 points with 11 boards, recording her ninth career double-double.
"Their length kind of deterred us from being as aggressive as we're normally used to being," explained first-year head coach DeLisha Milton-Jones. "Then they fell back into a zone for a large part of the game that made us passive as well. I had to keep telling the young women on this team that it's just a zone and it's just length and where they are tall they may be a little bit slower than you laterally. So we still need to have an attack mentality. I think in the second half they came out and showed more of an attack mentality towards the rim. We were able to get some good looks in the high post area. We had some nice looks in transition but we couldn't convert it because we either turned the ball over or missed a shot."
Despite George Washington leading the entire contest, ODU closed in on the Colonials lead when junior Ajah Wayne dropped in back-to-back field goals to make it a 12-point ball game with seven minutes left to play in the fourth period.
In the opening frame of the contest, ODU trailed the Colonials 16-12, shooting just 27 percent while George Washington went five-for-eight, shooting 62 percent from the field. In the second period, the Monarchs struggled, going 0-for-13, scoring just one point, which allowed George Washington to open up its lead to 26-13.
After the break, GW picked up where it left off, draining back-to-back field goals to make it a 30-13 game. Senior Victoria Morris broke the Colonials scoring run with a jump shot. Newcomer Lanay Wheaton drained her first points as a Monarch at the 6:33 mark of the third quarter. The Hope, Ark., native led the team in scoring in the third quarter with four points.
To close out the game, ODU shot 54 percent from the field and 66 percent from beyond the arc. Morris drained two triples, while Wayne downed four field goals in the final frame.
"When you're a first-year coach with a program, you can make a decision on, 'do you want to build a culture, or do you want to win?' I feel like I'm in a juxtaposition where we can do both. While we're building a culture and establishing ourselves from the vision I have, we can still put together wins. What we do from this point on after this game today is go back in the lab and dissect this game. I'm going to break down a lot of film for individuals to see and I'll break down a lot of film for the team to see so that they can still understand what the vision is."
Overall, five Monarchs added to the scoring efforts in the Saturday afternoon loss. Birmingham, Ala., native Wayne led the Monarchs in scoring with 11 points and nine rebounds. From the free throw line, ODU went five-for-12. Maggie Robinson, who started in 31 games during the 2018-19 season made her first start since sitting out last season due to injury. Redshirt freshman Mackenzie Smith also saw action after suffering a season-ending injury prior to the 2019-20 season.
Up Next
ODU will head home to Chartway Arena to host its four remaining non-conference games. The Monarchs will first welcome William & Mary on Thursday, Dec. 3 for a 6:30 p.m. tip-off and will air on CUSA.TV.
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