ODU Men's Basketball Rallies To Erase a 17-point Deficit But Falls in the Final Minute to Ga. Southern

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Unlike its last outing just two days earlier, the Old Dominion men’s basketball team competed hard, if not always well, against a very physical opponent and played with poise down the stretch. 

Alas for the Monarchs, the outcome was still the same Saturday afternoon. 

ODU rallied from a 17-point deficit to take a one-point lead in the final minutes, but fell to Georgia Southern, 67-63, before an alumni game crowd of 5,739 at Chartway Arena.

ODU (8-11 overall, 4-3 in the Sun Belt) began the week in first place in the conference. The back-to-back losses dropped them into a four-way tie for fourth.

Mike Jones, ODU’s Head Coach, was critical of his team following a 62-43 loss to App State, but two days later, was not critical of the effort against Georgia Southern.

“Today, I think we played hard, and we played very physical,” he said. “Effort was not the problem.”

Clearly, it wasn’t a problem on the boards.

ODU won the rebound margin by a huge margin, 53-33, including 32 offensive rebounds. The problem was that the Monarchs could not put the ball in the basket.

The Monarchs made 21 of 71 shots (29.6%) and only 4 of 19 three-pointers (21.1%).

The Monarchs shot 27 foul shots to just eight for Georgia Southern but missed 10 of them.

“The missed field goals, you know, obviously, that’s going to be a glaring thing off the stat sheet,” Jones said. “I’m assuming that’s going to be the glaring thing on film, too.

“And then, obviously, we missed a lot of free throws.

“We have to execute better.”

Robert Davis Jr., ODU’s leading scorer for the season, had 20 points in spite of an aggressive defensive effort against him employed by Georgia Southern (10-9, 3-4).

Sean Durugordon had 11 points and 17 rebounds. R.J. Blakney added nine points and 10 rebounds and Stephaun Walker 11 points.

The game at times resembled street ball as the refs let both teams go at it.

Late in the game, point guard Jaden Johnson drove the lane, shoved a player out of his way and put the ball in the basket. No foul was called.

It was the same way at both ends of the court, as a few plays later, Johnson was shoved out of the way underneath the Georgia Southern basket.

“I hear our fans complaining about the refs,” Jones said. “They let a lot go.

"But they let it go evenly on both sides. And that’s all you can ask for.”

ODU scored a season-low 43 points against App State, and appeared headed for a similar day early-on Saturday. The Monarchs missed 13 of their first 15 shots and then 20 of 24 and found themselves trailing, 28-11, with just six minutes remaining in the first half.

Slowly but surely, they played themselves back into the game.

Durugordon made a layup, and then had a steal and a layup, and the Monarchs trimmed the lead to eight, 30-22, at the half.

Davis made a three-pointer with 14:38 to trim the lead to four. A minute later, Walker made a three-pointer to cut the lead to one.

Johnson gave ODU its first lead, 56-55, with 4:19 left, bringing a loud and supportive crowd to its feet.

Durugordon gave ODU its last lead, 60-59, on a second-chance shot in the lane with 2:22 left.

“But we could not get that one stop we needed,” Jones said.

Adante’ Holiman, a transfer from UTSA, gave Georgia Southern the lead for good on a driving layup with two minutes left. He led all scorers with 28 points.

ODU trailed by three, 66-63, with 22 seconds left and the Monarchs were forced to foul.

Nate Brafford made a shot with 20 seconds left to advance the lead to four, and then Davis missed two, long three-point shots just before the final buzzer sounded.

There was a festive halftime alumni celebration as several dozen former players, coaches and managers were introduced, including the 1975 Division II national championship team, which was feted Friday night, 50 years after winning the title.

1975 ODU national championship team finally gets its championship rings

Jones presented the coaches and players with their rings on Friday night.

On Saturday, three former ODU head coaches were among the alumni introduced -- Jeff Jones, Blaine Taylor and Oliver Purnell, who played on the 1975 championship team. All three drew loud ovations.

Billy Allen, the son of the late coach Sonny Allen, accepted a ring for his family and was introduced to the crowd.

Former NBA players Cal Bowdler and Dave Twardzik were among the alumni announced at halftime.  

"I enjoyed my interaction with all of the alums, but those guys in particular, the guys who played on that 1975 team, they're the reason why we all love ODU," Jones said.

"I was honored to be able to be a part of that event last night, to be able to spend some time with all of those gentlemen and also all the alums who came back.

"All of which contributes a little to how disappointing this loss was."