ODU Women's Basketball Rallies In Second Half to Claim 78-71 Victory Over App State

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Knocked on its heels by an aggressive App State motion offense for most of the first half, the Old Dominion women’s basketball team rallied in the second half to claim its seventh victory in its last eight games.

Senior guard/forward Simone Cunningham scored 16 hard-fought points, with most of them coming in the lane in what was a physical game, and had 13 rebounds and three steals to help lead Monarchs past the Mountaineers, 78-71.

It was the third double-double for Cunningham this season and the sixth of her career.

ODU (13-5 overall, 5-1 Sun Belt) is tied with Arkansas State for second in the conference standings and knocked App State (8-8, 4-2) out of second.

“That was a big gutsy win,” said Delisha Milton-Jones, ODU’s head coach, who got balanced scoring from En’Dya Buford and Kelsey Thompson (13 points apiece), Simaru Fields (12), Mariah Clayton (11) and Brenda Fontana (eight points and eight rebounds).

“We started out flat. It seemed like we were anxious slash nervous slash standing in cement in the first quarter,” she added.

“Mariah Clayton came in (off the bench) and really sparked a run for us.”

App State’s motion offense consistently broke Mountaineers open under the basket in the first half. The Mountaineers owned the paint in the early going, scoring 22 of their 35 first-half points off layups.

The Monarchs were outscored 44-28 in the paint for the game. Zada Porter, a 5-foot-9 guard from Roanoke, led App State with 23 points, and was a burr in ODU’s side with her ability to get open.

But ODU outrebounded App State, 49-33, and outscored the Mountaineers, 26-8, on second-chance baskets and got 24 points off turnovers to 15 for the Mountaineers.

One of the league’s best three-point shooting teams, the Mountaineers were closely guarded by the Monarchs around the arc and made just four of 16 shots.

“I’m not upset about the 44 points they got in the paint,” Milton-Jones said. “We played such good defense at the three-point line. If you make it a two-point scoring game against them, you have an opportunity to win.”

App took a 13-point lead, 26-13, 21 seconds into the second quarter on a fallaway jumper by Rylan Moffitt. ODU then went on an 8-0 run to cut the lead to less than double digits and trailed, 35-29, at the half.

“I liked where we were at halftime,” Milton-Jones said. “We had been down by a lot but we found a way to circle the wagons and refocus everyone and we went into halftime with good momentum.

“I was super happy because it could have been a 20-point game at that point.”

She was even happier in the third quarter, when ODU took its first lead, 39-37, on a Fields three-pointer. App briefly reclaimed the lead, but the Monarchs regained control for good on a Buford three-pointer with 3:48 left in the third quarter.

With 18 seconds left in the third, Fields made a free throw and then missed the second. But Fontana grabbed the rebound and put the ball back in as ODU led 58-51 heading into the final quarter.

ODU’s 29 third-quarter points were the most in a quarter this season.

App State cut the lead to five with 49 seconds left, but ODU made six of eight free throws down the stretch.

Cunningham’s performance was all the more remarkable given that she was in early foul trouble and did not play in the third quarter. She played a little less than 21 of the game's 40 minutes.

“It was a physical game, but we did a good job of crashing the boards,” Cunningham said. “And they didn’t do a good job of boxing out our guards.

"This was a good win. We played much better in the second half than we did in the first. We came back strong."

ODU concludes a four-game home stand Saturday at 1 p.m. against Texas State in its annual alumni game. It is the first half of a doubleheader with the men, who take on Georgia Southern at 3:30.

ODU will honor three national championship teams on Saturday – the 1975 men’s basketball team, which won a Division II national championship, the first in ODU history; the 1985 women’s basketball team which won ODU's first NCAA title and third national championship; and the 1980 women’s basketball team, which won ODU’s second AIAW national title in a row.

Marianne Stanley, who coached all three ODU national championship women’s teams, will attend Saturday. Nearly a dozen family members of the late Sonny Allen, who coached the ODU men to the 1975 title, are also attending.