Men's Basketball Stumbles In Sun Belt Opener To South Alabama

NORFOLK, Va. – Isiah Gaiter's layup with nine seconds left provided visiting South Alabama the final margin as they defeated Old Dominion 61-59 in the Sun Belt Conference Men's Basketball opener for both teams Saturday night.
 
"We are all extremely disappointed that we were not able to continue to do the things we had done in the first half," said ODU Interim Head Coach Kieran Donohue. 
 
"We guarded them extremely well in the first half which allowed us to get out and play well on the offensive end. In the second half, we were not able to continue to do those same things," Donohue said. "Our challenge now is getting our players to understand that we need to learn from the mistakes which didn't allow us to take the victory today, but to be more consistently the team we were in the first half."
 
ODU (4-9, 0-1) closed the first half on a 7-0 run as Imo Essien found Jason Wade for a layup to just beat the halftime horn as ODU went into the locker room with a 36-22 lead. The advantage grew to 22 points early in the second half following a steal and layup from Allette for a 49-27 margin at the 14:08 mark.
 
South Alabama shot 6-of-10 from behind the arc in the second half and hit 14-of-27 from the floor (51.9%) as they started on a 16-0 run. Chaunce Jenkins stopped the drought with a layup with 8:19 left as ODU held a 51-43 lead.
 
That run grew to 29-6 as South Alabama took its first lead of the second half with 4:05 left after a Tyrell Jones 3-pointer for a 56-55 advantage. The lead bounced back and forth before Gaither's layup with nine seconds left as ODU's last chance bounced off.
 
ODU was down 8-2 early after a Julian Margrave 3-pointer with 15:38 left in the half. The Monarchs methodically worked their way back in and tied the game at 15-all following a Vasean Allette floater with 10:38 on the clock. 
 
A R.J. Blakney free throw 47 seconds later gave the Monarchs their first lead at 16-15 and started a 12-2 run over the next 4:47 as Bryce Baker drained a 3-pointer for a 27-17 lead with 5:04 left in the half.
 
Allette was the leading scorer for ODU with 15 points and a season-high five steals, while Blakney had 12 points, six rebounds and three blocked shots. Gaither topped South Alabama (8-5, 1-0) with 16 points and seven assists, while Jones added 12.
 
ODU hits the road now for four games starting on Thursday night at Troy.