By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Chaunce Jenkins did just about everything right on both ends of the basketball court Wednesday night.
The 6-foot-4 junior guard from Newport News led Old Dominion with 20 points, dished out five assists, blocked four shots, had two steals and committed just one turnover in nearly 38 minutes as the Monarchs held off Radford, 69-68, at Chartway Arena.
The victory, ODU's second in four days, sends the Monarchs (3-3) on a two-game road swing with some momentum. The Monarchs visit Northeastern Saturday before traveling to William & Mary next Thursday.
Then on Saturday, Dec. 9, the Monarchs host No. 22 James Madison. It has been designated a "white-out" game.
Freshman Vasean Allette scored 14 points, one short of his season high, and had six rebounds and two assists.
Jenkins twice chased down Radford players headed for fast-break dunks and slapped the ball away. One of the blocked shots, midway through the second half, was preceded by a Jenkins breakaway one-handed dunk.
"Chaunce is really good and he's showing that he can do a lot of things," ODU head coach Jeff Jones said. "But I think the chase-down blocks, that just speaks to his competitive spirit, his heart, his drive, his intensity, his competitiveness.
"I think it's really a cool thing and good for the team when your best player competes the hardest."
Not that he was perfect. With five seconds left, and ODU nursing a 69-68 lead, Jenkins was fouled and had a one-and-one. His first shot rimmed out.
Radford was out of timeouts and quickly got the ball up court, but because of good defensive pressure from the Monarchs, all the Highlanders could manage was an off-balance shot by Kenyon Giles that was not close.
"I was a little nervous" after missing the foul shot, Jenkins said. "But I just got back on defense."
Radford (5-4) has played a tough schedule that included losses at nationally-ranked North Carolina and JMU (76-73) and a 66-62 victory over Marshall. ODU broke a three-game Radford winning streak.
"They're good," Jones said of the Highlanders. "They play very hard. They don't beat themselves. They've got really good guard play and they're physical."
Among those cheering the Monarchs in the crowd of 5,292 was ODU President Brian O. Hemphill, PhD., who was president at Radford before coming to Norfolk.
"It was probably our most intense crowd of the season, playing another Virginia opponent, a pretty high-level team," Jenkins said. "The crowd helped us."
Radford was at times dominant in the first half, taking leads of 9-2, 17-6 and 30-23 before the Monarchs rallied to trim the lead to one, 32-31, at the half on a breakaway layup by Jenkins.
The Monarchs missed 10 of their first 12 shots and shot just 26.67 percent (eight of 30 shots) in the first half.
ODU warmed up considerably in the second half, making 15 of 30 (50 percent) and won the game at the free-throw line, where the Monarchs made 17 of 20 and outscored the Highlanders by eight.
ODU was coming off an overtime victory over Drexel and previously dropped a five-point loss at Ball State in which the Monarchs led with 1:32 remaining.
"I told the guys that likely we're going to be in a lot of games like this," Jones said. "We were last year and the year before. It seems like we have so many games that come down to the last few possessions or the last few minutes.
"And you've got to find a way to win. And we've proven twice that while it's not always pretty, you've got to scrap, and you've got to keep battling and make the winning plays."R.J. Blakney with a dunk late in the contest against Radford - photo by Bob Bradlee" height="267" src="https://storage.googleapis.com/odu-prod/2024/04/02/0jwhlus7Howx3xho9rP2bpda1i73AafzImFAhtsn.jpg" width="400" />R.J. Blakney for two - photo by Bob Bradlee
Radford led most of the game and was up 62-58 with 4:38 remaining.
Tyrone Williams gave ODU a 65-62 lead with a pair of free throws and a layup and then R.J. Blakney pushed it to 67-62 with a dunk off a beauty of an assist from Allette.
But Giles and DaQuan Smith made consecutive three-point shots in the final two minutes, the final with 44 seconds left that trimmed the lead to one.
Fortunately for ODU, and Jenkins, the Highlanders never scored again.
"I think we've got a real confident, fearless mob," Jenkins said. "Guys miss shots, they miss assignments. But they don't lose faith.
"No matter how the game is going, everyone keeps sight of the goal, which is winning."