By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – It's difficult to call any game this early in the season a "must-win," but for the Old Dominion women's basketball team, Thursday's Sun Belt Conference home opener against the University of Louisiana Monroe was about as close as it gets.
The preseason pick to finish second in the Sun Belt, the Monarchs dropped a pair of lopsided conference losses last week at Appalachian State and James Madison. ODU entered Thursday's game with a four-game losing streak and the Monarchs had not won since beating Norfolk State on Dec. 11.
But ODU rebounded smartly Thursday, as Makayla Dickens poured in 14 points and Kaye Clark 11 and the Monarchs dominated from start to finish to rout ULM, 63-49, at Chartway Arena.
ODU (9-7 overall, 1-2 Sun Belt) hosts South Alabama Saturday at 2 p.m.
Last week ODU was without Amari Young, its best player, who was at home in North Augusta, South Carolina, with her family mourning the loss of her father. Al Young, 47, died unexpectedly on Christmas Eve day.
Dickens said Al Young's death reverberated throughout the team.
"Amari plays such a huge role on this team," Dickens said during the post-game press conference. "You can tell not just from her numbers, but from her personality and who she is as a person.
"So, hearing that news, it definitely affected us. Nobody should have to go through what she's going through.
"There are no words you can say to make up for what happened to her. As long as we're around her, and we support and show as much love as we can, that's all we can do.
"She knows we're there for her."
By that point, Dickens was tearing up. As head coach DeLisha Milton-Jones answered the next question, Dickens politely stood up and walked out of the interview room.
"You know the tough thing about sports is that we have our fans that come to games and they're expecting us to entertain them and put on a show," Milton-Jones said. "But behind closed doors life is happening at full speed.
"When you have something like this happen to your sister, it doesn't just happen to her. It happens to everyone.
"I'll be honest, as a coach, you really have to monitor just how much you turn the heat up because you can forget the reality of what's going on.
"Because we love Amari and feel for her, it's been a solemn thing for everybody."
Young is by far ODU's best rebounder, but with her on the bench in foul trouble, Brianna Jackson (nine rebounds) and Jatyjia Jones (six) both stepped up. The Monarchs outrebounded ULM, 47-34.
ODU bolted to a 12-point lead early in the second quarter and led 28-19 at halftime after the Warhawks tallied just five second-quarter points.
ULM (5-9, 1-2) cut the lead to five, 35-30, on a three-point play by Bre Sutton with 5:46 left in the first half.
ODU then retook control of the game as Jada Duckett had a layup, Althea Kara Angeles two free throws and Taleah Washington a fast-break three-pointer to give the Monarchs a 42-30 lead. The Monarchs led by double digits the rest of the way.
Young returned to the team this week but was in foul trouble most of Thursday and had just four points and four rebounds in nearly 15 minutes.
Young's second rebound was the 1,000th of her career. When the milestone was announced with five minutes left in the game, she got a standing ovation from the crowd of 1,690.
Milton-Jones said Young played as hard as she could. "She gave us the best she could under the circumstances, but it's still not the Amari that we're used to seeing," Milton-Jones said.
"It shows just how freaking powerful she is because her presence alone brought a certain amount of calm and confidence for our team.
"Keep Amari and her family in your prayers because we're all going through this together. We want her to know that she is not alone."
Makayla Dickens led ODU with 14 points