By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – With a mixture of eight transfer players and six holdovers, creating the right chemistry the Old Dominion women's basketball team will need this season is a work in progress.
But three games into the season, the reviews have so far been good.
With the score tied early in the third quarter, ODU cranked up its fast-break offense and asserted itself on the boards and rolled to a 59-43 victory over William & Mary in the Monarchs' home opener at Chartway Arena.
William & Mary (2-1) was picked to finish seventh in the CAA but opened the season with victories over Navy at home and a 66-61 overtime victory at VCU.
"William and Mary came in here off of two good wins," said ODU coach DeLisha Milton-Jones, whose Monarchs are 2-1. "We knew if we did not come out with the right mentality, we would be ripe for the picking.
"Once we made some adjustments in the second half, that's when the game really opened up for us."
The score was tied at 25-all two minutes into the third quarter when Kaye Clark, a senior returnee, began an 8-0 spurt with a jump shot. Jordan McLaughlin, a junior from Charlotte who transferred from Chipola junior college, scored the next four points, including a layup set up by a no-look pass from returning senior Amari Young.
Brianna Jackson, also a returning senior, grabbed an offensive rebound and powered in a layup to make it 33-25 ODU with 6:05 left in the quarter.
Young and Jada Duckett, a 6-foot-2 transfer from Miami of Ohio, each closed out the quarter with a jump shot and free throw apiece to make it 42-30 at the end of the third quarter.
Jatyjia Jones, a transfer from Memphis, began the fourth quarter with a three-point shot and Duckett with a layup to advance the lead to 17.
The Tribe never got close again.
McLaughlin played 34 minutes, the most for any ODU player, and scored 11 points and had six assists and three steals in her first game at Chartway Arena. She said she fed off the energy from a crowd of 2,219.
"I was a little nervous, and the energy coming from the gym is something I've never experienced," she said. "I really felt like the crowd was into it with us that it got me going.
"I loved the fact that we were here playing in front of our fans."
Jackson and Young, the top two returning scorers from last season, did not have typically robust performances in an 81-62 loss at Florida Gulf Coast and a 75-49 victory at Texas Southern, but played well in the home opener.
Young, a 5-11 forward from North Augusta, South Carolina, had 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists while Jackson, the 6-3 forward from Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach, added 10 points, eight rebounds and two assists.
ODU outscored the Tribe, 32-14, in the lane and had a 47-32 rebound edge.
Seven of ODU's next 12 games are on the road, and Milton-Jones said that is by design.
"We did that because we knew going into our Sun Belt Conference schedule, we were going to have to play tough teams on the road," she said.
"We designed the schedule that way so that . . . it's us against the world. Being on the road can help fortify our team chemistry."
The Monarchs are at Xavier this Saturday and at Elon next Tuesday, Nov. 22 before returning home to face Coppin State on Sunday, Nov. 27.
ODU Women's Basketball Rolls Past William & Mary, 59-43, in Home Opener
