NORFOLK, Va. – Ben Stanley scored all of his game-high 15 points in the second half as the Old Dominion men's basketball team opened the final 20 minutes on a 20-3 run to sink the East Carolina Pirates 71-50 on Saturday night at Chartway Arena.
"I am proud of the guys as they played with great effort. ECU is a tough matchup with four guards and shooting so many three-pointers, and I thought we did a good job on the defensive end," said ODU head coach Jeff Jones.
"We talked about their spurtability, as ECU in earlier games has been down 19-20 points and they've been able to come back and get hot. I thought we were the team tonight that had the spurtability and our offense got going from our defense," he added.
A nip and tuck first half saw the Monarchs go up 31-30 after a Wynton Tabbs floater in the lane beat the buzzer.
The Monarchs got going in the second half hitting 11-of-12 from the floor in the first eight minutes as layups from Dericko Williams, Stanley and a pair from Mekhi Long pushed the Monarchs out to a 39-30 lead at the 18:28 mark.
Jaden Walker interrupted the run with a jumper in the paint for East Carolina (5-2), but the Monarchs found another gear with the next eight points as consecutive buckets from Faizon Fields put ODU (4-3) up 47-32 with 15:24 left.
"In the second half we got the ball inside with Ben and Mekhi getting us going and we got stops. Dericko Williams was doing a great job on the boards, but Faizon Fields came in during the second half and he ran his butt off getting layups and dunks off pure effort plays. We were able to stretch out the lead off our defense leading to transition offense," said Jones.
Chaunce Jenkins and Tyreek Scott-Grayson closed the run with jumpers in the paint as the Monarchs took a 51-33 lead with 13:17 left.
Stanley paced the Monarchs with 15 points, while Jenkins added 14 and Long had 10 points with five rebounds and three steals. ODU hit 27-of-57 from the floor (47.4%) and 16-of-24 from the foul line (66.7%). The Monarchs held a 38-35 advantage on the boards and dominated points in the paint outscoring ECU 50-18.
Old Dominion returns to Charleston, South Carolina on Tuesday night to take on College of Charleston at 7 p.m.
NOTES
- Career high rebounds (8) and assists (5) for Imo Essien
- Season high rebounds for Williams (10)
- Season high points for Fields (7)
- Second time in last three games the Monarchs opened the second half hot as they hit 10-of-11 against Furman in the Charleston Classic.
- Lowest points allowed in a game since Feb. 13, 2021 when they defeated Charlotte 64-45.