BOONE, N.C. – Old Dominion women’s basketball scored the first five points of the game, but App State took over from there as the Monarchs fell 74-66 on Thursday night at the Holmes Convocation Center.
The Monarchs fall to 13-7 overall and 5-3 in the Sun Belt with the loss.
Simaru Fields and En’Dya Buford scored 20 points each to lead the offense, with Buford adding nine rebounds to her totals. Kelsey Thompson finished with eight points, Simone Cunningham pulled down nine boards to go with a seven-point effort, and Brenda Fontana had six points with as many rebounds.
The teams were pretty even in their shooting. ODU went 24-for-61 (39.3%) from the field, 6-for-21 (28.6%) from distance, and 12-for-21 (57.1%) at the free-throw line. App State shot 27-for-57 (47.4%) on the night, made 6-of-20 (30.0%) shots from the perimeter, and converted 14-of-19 (73.7%) free throw attempts.
However, the hosts got more bench production with 27 points from their reserves compared to just five points by ODU’s bench.
The Monarchs got out to a quick 5-0 start as Fields opened the scoring with a layup, Fontana followed with another layup and Cunningham went 1-for-2 at the line. But the Mountaineers (10-8, 6-2) rattled off 13 unanswered points in response and led 15-8 after the first 10 minutes of play.
Both sides traded multiple threes throughout the second quarter. A couple of triples by Fontana and Buford along with a jumper from Cunningham helped trim the App State lead to 20-18 at the 6:19 mark. Buford’s third long ball of the evening kept ODU to within 26-24 with 3:45 on the clock, but the Mountaineers pushed their lead back to seven, 33-26, to finish the first half.
App State put together a 7-0 run midway through the third quarter to go up, 46-31. ODU finally got some momentum though in the final two minutes. Fields got her jumper to fall, Thompson added a layup, and Fields cashed in on a fast-break opportunity to close out the quarter with a 6-0 push as the Monarchs went into the final stanza down, 48-39.
In the fourth, the Mountaineers stretched their advantage to 66-53 with just over three minutes to play. After Fontana fouled out, Camryn Hill went 1-for-2 at the stripe before Buford scored a couple of layups. A Thompson steal then led to a fast-break layup for Mariah Clayton as the 7-0 run had the Monarchs with 66-60. With only 32 seconds remaining, ODU was forced to send the home team to the line. Fields made a three-pointer with 24 seconds left to make it 68-63, but the Mountaineers shot 8-for-8 at the line to close out the game.
ODU is back in action this Saturday as the Monarchs head to Atlanta, Georgia for a 1 p.m. meeting with Georgia State.