ODU Women's Basketball Beats UTSA to Advance to Quarterfinals of Conference USA Tournament

By Harry Minium

FRISCO, Texas – The last time the Old Dominion women's basketball team played, the Monarchs were flat and lacked confidence and predictably lost by 22 points in their regular-season finale at Middle Tennessee.

But led by veterans Amari Young and Mariah Adams, and a souped-up defense, the Monarchs looked like an entirely different team in the second round of the Conference USA Tournament. ODU blew past UTSA, 65-45, Wednesday to advance to Thursday's quarterfinals at the Ford Center at the Star.

ODU meets North Texas (16-11), which won eight of its last nine games, Thursday at 12:30 ET (ESPN+). The Monarchs downed the Mean Green, 67-57, on Jan. 22 at Chartway Arena.

North Texas finished second in the West Division and thus received a bye into Thursday's quarterfinals.

The Monarchs won as they usually do, with their defense. ODU (23-8) forced 25 UTSA turnovers and turned those turnovers into 25 points.

ODU was also dominant in the lane, outscoring UTSA in the paint, 40-22.

Young, a senior forward from North Augusta, South Carolina, led the way on both ends of the court. She led ODU with 16 points and had six steals, five rebounds and four assists.

Point guard Mariah Adams played 34 minutes and had 10 points, eight assists and three rebounds. 



Both seemed to step up their games more than usual, and ODU needed them to. The Monarchs are without Ajah Wayne, their best player and an All-Conference USA First Team selection. Wayne went down with a knee injury in a home loss to Louisiana Tech a week ago.

Young consistently posted up or drove inside, drawing fouls or scoring points.

"Coach said to get the ball inside, so that's what I did," said Young who added that she and her teammates wanted to make up for the poor performance at Middle Tennessee.

"That motivated us," she said. "We knew we had to keep our heads up and play better today."

DeLisha Milton-Jones said "I can't speak enough about the posture Amari had in the paint for us. She was an enforcer for us and the catalyst for this game.

"And six steals. Someone call the FBI. We have a thief on our hands."

Aziah Hudson, who played 32 minutes, provided ODU with some needed long-distance scoring, making four of seven 3-pointers and scoring 14 points. Iggy Allen added 12.

ODU flew from Nashville to Dallas this past weekend and then bused to Frisco. Milton-Jones said since arriving, she's worked on getting her team in a better place mentally and emotionally than it was at Middle Tennessee.

DeLisha Milton-Jones" height="333" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/odu-prod/2024/04/02/YkenBUeaCsW5NgXD0qQt1L52wHbVzQwxunS4FapR.jpg" width="500" />

"We knew that we didn't display who we were" at Middle Tennessee, she said. "We got away from our identity. We had some individuals battling stuff mentally and emotionally and it showed itself.

"That's a team we handled in Norfolk. And then we went on the road into a hostile environment and it was difficult, but it shouldn't have been that difficult."

She acknowledged that losing Wayne was a blow to her team's confidence.

"I think that was a little staggering for us and it hurt us against both LA Tech and Middle Tennessee," she said. "But we've found our bearings and we understand we can't find Weezy (Wayne) on the court just slashing to the basket.

"Now everyone understands the onus is on them. Everyone must give one percent more to make up for the 110 percent effort she gave us.

"Even though she's not on the floor, it's so great to have her voice and her presence."

Wayne was on the court for pre-game warmups, wearing a knee brace, and moved slowly. Milton-Jones said she could return before the season ends.



"You can never count Ajah Wayne out," she said. "She came to me yesterday and said that she's feeling good. We're going to proceed with caution, and that whenever we do go out there with her, it's going to be an environment in which she can be productive and efficient."

ODU threatened to blow the game open in the first half and third quarter, twice pulling out to double-digit leads. Each time, UTSA (7-23) rallied to make it close, trimming an 11-point lead to six in the final two minutes of the third.

The Monarchs put the game away in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter with a 9-3 run capped by an Allen 3-pointer that gave the Monarchs a 56-42 lead. UTSA never threatened again.

Milton-Jones said she was pleased with the urgency that her team played with.

"We don't want our season to be over," she said. "We were coming off of two losses.

"It was a must that we come out with a tenacity attached to everything we did and walk away with a good win.

"To me, the focus is on us. No disrespect to our opponents, but we usually beat ourselves. We need to come out with that same tenacity the rest of the tournament."

To beat North Texas she said "we need to just be ourselves. Go out on the defensive end and force turnovers.

"We're all in at this point."

Game Notes
Amari Young set a season high with 16 points, going 7-of-12 from the floor, and set a career high with six steals. She also had a season-best four assists, one off her career high. The six steals match the most by a Monarch in a single game this season. Mariah Adams also had six steals at Temple.
 
Adams once again flirted with a double-double, finishing with 10 points and eight assists. The senior from Little Rock, Arkansas made four of her six shot attempts and had just two turnovers. Over the past five games, Adams has 31 assists and only 11 turnovers.
 
Aziah Hudson hit double figures in scoring for the fourth time in the past six games and matched a season high with four 3-pointers. Hudson is averaging 12.5 points on 16-of-30 shooting from deep (.533) over the last six games.
 
UTSA became the 14th team to commit 20 or more turnovers against ODU this season, coughing it up 25 times. The Monarchs have forced 25-plus turnovers eight times this season. Old Dominion scored 25 points off those miscues.
 
The Monarchs have won at least one game in 36 of the 37 conference tournaments in which it has featured. ODU improves to 13-8 in C-USA Tournament games. Head coach DeLisha Milton-Jones is 4-1 in the C-USA Tournament.