ODU Men's Basketball Team Beaten by ULM, 80-73, Saturday at Chartway Arena

By Harry Minium
 
NORFOLK, Va. – ULM guard Tyreke Locure broke out of a deep slump at a most inopportune time for the Old Dominion men's basketball team.
 
The New Orleans native scored 20 points, including several long jump shots that helped stymie ODU comeback attempts, as the Warhawks claimed an 80-73 victory over the Monarchs Saturday night. 
 
Locure led the Warhawks in scoring last season but had scored in double figures only once in ULM's last 10 games. Coincidentally, Louisiana-Monroe (5-12 overall, 1-6 Sun Belt) broke a nine-game losing streak on a night when he finally found the basket.
 
ODU (5-14, 1-6) played its finest game of the season in routing Marshall, 91-66, on Thursday. But the Monarchs took a big step back on Saturday.
 
The defensive intensity and hot shooting that enabled the Monarchs to blow out Marshall were missing. Basketball games are won with effort, and interim head coach Kieran Donohue said the effort was clearly missing on the ODU side.
 
ODU, which never led, was outrebounded 28-9 in a first half in which the Warhawks took a 35-24 lead. The Warhawks outrebounded ODU, 44-21, for the game. ULM's Makai Willis and Jalen Bolden combined to grab 25 rebounds, four more than the entire ODU team.
 
"That was obviously a very disappointing result, but even more so, it was a very disappointing performance," Donohue said.
 
"We were not able to play with enough intensity, effort, focus or competitiveness to put ourselves in a position to perform better tonight.
 
"ULM right from the start was the hungrier team, the team that played harder, the team that wanted it more and was willing to be able to find a way to go get it.
 
"So, we have to go back to the drawing board. We have to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out where we go from here."
 
Asked what he told his players after the game, Donohoe replied: "Exactly what I just said to you.
 
"For the most part all year we have played really hard and competed. It hasn't always been pretty and we've made plenty of mistakes.
 
"But we've competed. For too much of the game tonight we were unable to do that.
 
"So, that was the message. We have to make a decision to be the harder playing team. That's our only path forward."
 
The Monarchs host James Madison Wednesday and JMU (17-2, 5-2) was ranked in the Top 25 much of the season and at No. 60, is the highest-rated Sun Belt team in the NCAA Net rankings.
 
ULM took its largest lead of the game, 54-38, on a fast-break layup by Locure with 11 minutes left to play.
 
The Monarchs stepped up their intensity and cut the 16-point margin in half on a fast-break three-point shot by Chaunce Jenkins two minutes later. But ULM answered most ODU baskets the rest of the way with points and skillfully milked the clock in the final minutes.
 
The Monarchs committed nine fouls in the final two minutes in an attempt to rally and trimmed the margin to six, 77-71, on a Jenkins three-pointer with 24 seconds left. But it was too little, too late, as Locure made three of four foul shots in the final seconds to ice the victory.
 
Jenkins, who made just one of 10 shots in the first half, got hot in the second half and led the Monarchs with 20 points.
 
"No matter who you play, to win in this conference it takes grit and it takes a great amount of effort," guard Imo Essien said. "And it doesn't matter who we played tonight, we just didn't have those two things.
 
"We didn't give ourselves a chance to win."