ODU Women's Basketball Holds Off Marshall, 80-75, To Win For The Sixth Time in Seven Games
By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Baseball has its closers, pitchers who come in the late innings to save a victory. And Saturday afternoon at Chartway Arena, En’Dya Buford was the closer of sorts for the Old Dominion women’s basketball team.
After Marshall rallied from a nine-point deficit to come within a point of the Monarchs with 3:35 left, Buford took over for ODU, scoring eight points, pulling down three rebounds and making a key pass that led to a basket as the Monarchs held on to defeat the Herd, 80-75.
ODU (12-5, 4-1 Sun Belt) has won six of its last seven games and is tied for second in the conference with App State, Louisiana, Troy and Arkansas State. App State visits ODU on Wednesday, Jan. 15, in the third game of the Monarchs' four-game home stand.
Marshall is the defending Sun Belt Conference champion but after coach Kim Caldwell left for Tennessee, is rebuilding under Juli Fulks, who won 400 games in Division III and won a national title at Transylvania.
Marshall (5-11, 0-5) is last in the Sun Belt but played toe to toe with the Monarchs.
“That team is much better than its record,” said DeLisha Milton-Jones, ODU’s head coach. “You really can’t sleep on them because at any moment, they can rain down threes on you and they’re back in the game.
“Had it not been for our defensive efforts late in the game, it could have been a different result today.”
Marshall swept three games from the Monarchs last season, and although the Herd has a very different team this season, Milton-Jones said she didn’t want Saturday's game to be the fourth.
“Yes there was,” she responded when asked if the Monarchs were seeking a little payback. “I didn’t want anyone to be able to say that this is the fourth time in a row that Marshall has beaten ODU.
“We put a stop to that today and I’m super proud that everyone focused on just that, going out and playing well.”
Both teams shot well from beyond the three-point arc, with ODU making 12 of 25 (48 percent) and Marshall 12 of 27 (44.5 percent) but ODU had a 42-30 rebound edge that proved decisive.
Kelsey Thompson, the junior transfer from South Alabama, led ODU with a season high 20 points. Buford, the senior graduate student from Memphis, had 17 points and led ODU with nine rebounds and added nine assists.
Brenda Fontana, the senior from Buenos Aires, Argentina, had 10 points and six rebounds. Fontana has now scored 504 points in her time at ODU. Simone Cunningham had nine points and eight rebounds.
Marshall largely kept it close until the final seconds. Ashley Hayes made two of three free throws with 3:35 left to pull Marshall within one.
Buford then made a floating jump shot, and following a Marshall miss, drove hard to the lane and drew a foul. She made two free throws and the Monarchs led by five when CC Mays made a three-pointer to trim the lead to two with 2:21 left.
Then, with the score unchanged and 40.2 seconds left, Buford found Fontana in good position under the basket with the spot-on inbounds pass. Fontana missed one shot but got the rebound and made the second.
After Hayes missed a shot, Buford rebounded, was fouled and made two free throws to build the lead to six. She then salted the victory away with two more free throws with 11 seconds left.
ODU led by nine early-on and by eight with 4:13 left in the second quarter when the Herd got three-pointers from Meredith Maier and Hayes, and then a driving layup from Blessing King, over a two-minute stretch to tie the score.
Milton-Jones called a quick timeout and urged the Monarchs to play with more urgency, especially on defense, and ODU did so. The Monarchs closed out the half with a 6-0 run on a fallaway three-pointer from Thompson and free throws from Mikayla Brown, Fontana and Cummingham and led, 44-38, at the half.
ODU twice extended the lead to eight, but the Herd would not go away. Marshall twice cut the lead to one late in the third quarter. Fontana made two of four free throws in the final 1:23 to give the Monarchs a 61-58 lead heading into a fourth quarter in which Buford took control.
ODU got off to a slow start, and did not finish well, in its last game, an 80-77 home loss to Coastal Carolina.
“We didn’t want the same result that we had with Coastal,” said Buford, who matched a season-low with two points against the Chanticleers. “So we had to go out and give our all to go out and win, whatever we had to do to get it done.”
“We played with a sense of urgency tonight,” Milton-Jones added. “We’re a good team and we’re striving to become a great team.
“It wasn’t one of (Buford’s) better games against Coastal. She texted me after the game and said, ‘coach, my bad.’ For her to tighten up her bootstraps, it shows what type of a player she is.
“She’s from Memphis. She has such pride for her city and it’s a hard-nosed, in your face place. And that’s how she played tonight.”
After hosting App State on Wednesday, the Monarchs end the home stand next Saturday, Jan. 18, with a 1 p.m. game against Georgia State. It is the first game of a double header with the men's team and it is alumni night for both teams.