ODU Men's Basketball Team Drops a Heartbreaker to Central Michigan, 58-57

By Harry Minium
 
NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion men's basketball team played hard if not always well. But once again, the Monarchs fell, and this time in heartbreaking fashion.
 
ODU rallied from a late five-point deficit to cut the lead to one, and trailing by one with 17 seconds left rebounded a miss free throw. But Chaunce Jenkins missed a fallway three-pointer with two seconds left and Central Michigan escaped with a 58-57 victory over the Monarchs in the MAC-Sun Belt challenge.
 
The victory continued a hot streak for Central Michigan (14-10), which is third in the Mid-American Conference and has won nine of its last 11 games.
 
The Monarchs (6-19) meanwhile have lost five of their last six.
 
Although Jenkins missed the last shot, that was not what lost the game. Jenkins made 5 of 9 shots, including 3 of 6 three-pointers, and led the Monarchs with 16 points. Without Jenkins, the game would not have been close.
 
The key to Central Michigan's victory was shutting him down late in the game. After Jenkins swished a three-point shot with 9:28 left, he failed to get an open shot until the final seconds.
 
Interim ODU head coach Kieran Donohue said that was because Central Michigan's defensive strategy was to deny him the ball or lanes to drive.
 
"They were keying on him," Donohue said. "They were taking away his lanes whether it was in set plays where we try to create lanes for him or whether it was unscripted.
 
"He was their focus. Their players were talking about it. You could hear them on the bench. It was often two guys keying on him.
 
"I thought Chaunce did a pretty good job facilitating others."
 
The game was a defensive scrum in which both teams played physical, although that was not reflected in the fouls column. Central Michigan took 15 more foul shots than ODU and outscored the Monarchs 14-4 from the foul line.
 
"We've been good at getting to the free-throw line and tonight we weren't able to do that," Donohoe said.
 
ODU shot unusually well from three-point range, making 11 of 23. But the Monarchs made just 10 of 37 two-point shots and a lot of those misses came at close range.
 
R.J. Blakney and Tyrone Williams both scored 12 points for the Monarchs and Imo Essien made 3 of 4 three-point shots to finish with nine.
 
After Jenkins's last three-pointer, Blakney made a layup to give the Monarchs a 49-45 lead with 8:24 left. Central Michigan was in the midst of a shooting slump and ODU had a chance to build its lead.
 
However, ODU failed to score on its next six possessions. By the time Blakney made a dunk with 4:49 to go, it was 51-51.
 
Central Michigan's Aidan Rubio made a three-point shot with 2:55 to go that lifted the Chippewas to a 56-51 lead and with 2:22 left they had the ball and were trying to work the clock.
 
Blakney made a steal and fed to Williams, who dunked the lead back to three. Jenkins made a steal and passed to Williams for a layup with 1:02 left that trimmed the lead to 56-55.
 
After Central Michigan got a clutch jumper from Brian Taylor with 41 seconds left, Blakney then made a second-chance layup to cut the lead back to one. But that was as close as ODU got.
 
Saturday's game was the first of a five-game stand that continues Thursday with Louisiana and Saturday with Georgia State at Chartway Arena.
 
Donohue said it's good that the Monarchs enter this final stretch playing hard.
 
"We walked out of here tonight without the result we wanted but our kids are competing, they're sticking together," he said.
 
"That's always a step forward, right? But a different result would have been a bigger step forward. We're not naïve enough to not understand or appreciate that.
 
"But our kids are battling and competing and fighting through a ton of adversity. And as long as we continue to do that, it's a step forward."