RALEIGH, N.C. – Old Dominion women’s basketball led 19-17 at the end of the first quarter, but struggled offensively for the remainder of the game as the Monarchs fell 86-55 at No. 24 NC State on Sunday afternoon.
The Monarchs fall to 6-3 with the loss while the Wolfpack moves to 6-3. ODU’s eight-point lead in the first quarter was the largest by a visiting team this season at Reynolds Coliseum.
En’Dya Buford shot 5-for-13 from the field and 5-for-6 at the free-throw line to lead the Monarchs with 16 points. Simone Cunningham contributed eight points with seven rebounds while Simaru Field and Jadyn Atchison finished with seven points each.
As a team, ODU shot just 20-for-69 (29.0%) on the night and went 5-for-27 (18.5%) from beyond the arc and 10-for-17 (58.8%) at the free-throw line. NC State won the rebounding battle, 55-39, and scored more points in the paint (40-22), on the fast break (24-5), and off the bench (41-30).
“Our first quarter, we played well together,” said ODU Assistant Coach Roland Jones Jr. “We stuck to the game plan and we executed a little better. We got some 50-50 balls and some calls that went our way, but after that we just couldn’t hit a shot tonight.”
Old Dominion jumped out to an early lead to start the game as Fields got to the line and made both of her free throws and Mikayla Brown followed with a second-chance basket. Fields then stretched that advantage to 9-2 with a successful jumper and a step back three-pointer from the right wing. A late foul by Kelsey Thompson led to three free throws for Saniya Rivers as the hosts trimmed the ODU lead to 19-17 at the end of the first quarter.
NCSU scored seven unanswered to take over control early in the second quarter. Sarah Hammack Fitzgerald scored a layup and Buford made 3-of-4 shots at the line to keep it close as ODU trailed 26-24 at the 5:03 mark, but the Wolfpack took off again with an 11-0 spurt. Atchison then found Hama’ya Fielder for a corner three from the right side and the Monarchs trailed 38-27 at the break.
“I think we just got trigger happy,” continued Jones. “We failed to be consistent on making threes and taking long twos instead of getting to the basket, getting them in foul trouble, and getting to the free-throw line. We totally went away from that and when you do that against great teams like this, they’re eventually going to make a run.”
The Wolfpack put together an 18-0 run in the middle of the third to go up 58-29 before Cunningham broke the drought with a jumper. The senior then added a 2-for-2 effort at the line and followed with a tip-in to make it a 62-35 deficit with just over a minute to play in the quarter. Lorena Awou responded with a pair of layups before Atchison closed out the quarter with a jumper.
The two teams went back and forth in the first half of the final stanza, with a Tilda Trygger long ball stretching the Wolfpack lead to 79-46 with 4:32 left in the game. Buford responded with a three of her own, Marie Kenembeni followed with a three from the top of the arc, and Mariah Clayton scored a fastbreak layup to cap off the 8-0 run as ODU trailed 79-54 with 2:52 to go. The hosts answered with a 7-0 run of their own and Clayton closed out the game by going 1-for-4 at the line.
The Monarchs will have a week to prepare for East Carolina in the Anne Donovan Classic. Tipoff at Chartway Arena is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
“These are the games that we definitely have to learn from as we get ready for conference play,” added Jones. “We were picked third in the Sun Belt this year and I think we have all of the capability in the world to make a deep run. The top teams automatically go to the semifinals this year and that’s something very achievable for this team, but we have to learn from this and get better from this.”