ODU Women's Basketball Falls in Overtime to ECU in Anne Donovan Classic
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Anne Donovan was a two-time All-American and a consensus Player of the Year who led Old Dominion to a women’s basketball national championship. She was also the head coach at East Carolina for three seasons.
So, if you thought that when ODU and ECU met Sunday in the annual Anne Donovan Classic that it would be a hard-fought, physical game, you were correct. ECU got a hook shot from Amiyra Joyner with six seconds left in overtime and held on to defeat ODU, 59-58, at Chartway Arena.
En’Dya Buford, the 5-foot-7 graduate student from Memphis, played a monster game for the Monarchs (6-4). She had 21 points, 14 rebounds, three steals and three assists. Of the game’s 45 minutes, she played all but 38 seconds.
ODU led, 48-41, with 4:11 left and then went into a cold spell. Joyner tied the score at 48-all with two free throws with 1:41 left.
Buford then rocketed a no-look pass inside the lane to Simone Cunningham, who made a layup with 50 seconds left.
Brenda Fontana then drew an offensive foul from ECU’s Taliyah Wyche, who fouled out. Buford was fouled with 27 seconds left and made two free throws and the Monarchs led by four.
But with seven seconds left, Joyner made two free throws to send the game into overtime.
Buford made a jump-shot inside the lane with 1:26 left in overtime to give ODU a one-point lead and then the Pirates (6-4) responded on a Joyner fast-break layup with 20 seconds left.
ODU then took a 58-57 lead on a Mikayla Brown layup with 10 seconds left. That’s when Joyner made her game-winning layup on an inbounds catch and shoot pass from Morgan Moseley.
DeLisha Milton-Jones, ODU’s head coach, said the Monarchs probably should have won the game in regulation and at the end of the game, allowed Joyner to get too easy of a look at the basket.
“We just needed one, solid defensive stance,” she said. “But we give up a shot that we should not have given up. And here we are.”
Milton-Jones said Buford hurt her hand in the final minutes – “it’s like she had a stinger,” she said. And that limited Buford’s ability to score in overtime.
“She was trying to get off the ball because she didn’t want to be a decision maker when she really couldn’t feel her hand,” she said.
ODU has little time to mourn this loss. The Monarchs depart Monday for Washington, D.C. for Tuesday’s noon game at Howard University.
The Monarchs then return home on Sunday, Dec. 22, to host Delaware and then begin their Sun Belt Conference schedule on Sunday, Dec. 29, at home against South Alabama.
“It’s always tough when you lose,” Buford said. “But we’ve got to bounce back and get a dub.”
Donovan, a native of Ridgewood, New Jersey, was at 6-foot-8 the tallest player in women’s college basketball in the early 1980s. She helped lead ODU to three Final Fours and was the Naismith National Player of the Year in 1983.
She won two Olympic gold medals as a player and as a coach, led the Seattle Storm to the 2004 WNBA title and the United States to the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal.
Donovan passed away on June 13, 2018. She is a member of the ODU, Virginia Sports and Women’s Basketball halls of fame.
More than 20 members of the Donovan family attended the game and were recognized during a halftime video dedication to Anne.
Milton-Jones played for Donovan on the 2008 Olympic team, along with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, and has always spoken emotionally of her ties with Donovan.
“Anne Donovan will always be a part of the great women’s basketball legacy at ODU,” Milton-Jones said. “She was a giant in the game and a giant of a human being. She is missed.”