ODU Men's Basketball Blows Out Coastal Carolina, 74-52, Before Largest Crowd Of The Season

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – Coming off one of its most disappointing losses of the season, the Old Dominion men’s basketball team responded three days later by claiming one of its most satisfying victories.

The Monarchs rolled to an early lead and coasted past Coastal Carolina, 74-52, Saturday night before a Chartway Arena crowd of 6,684, the largest home crowd of the season.

Old Dominion (9-12 overall, 5-4 Sun Belt) was coming off a 74-60 loss to James Madison after which Mike Jones, ODU’s head coach, criticized his players for their shot selection.

The Monarchs failed to share the ball with their teammates, he said, in successive home losses to App State, Georgia Southern, and the Dukes. ODU had a total of 12 assists in the three games.

Conversely, the Monarchs had 15 assists Saturday night, and shot well, making 31 of 63 shots (49.2%). They also outrebounded the Chanticleers, 43-35, and got a monster performance from their bench, which outscored the Coastal bench, 47-12.

That stat was helped by the fact that Robert Davis Jr., ODU’s leading scorer for the season, did not start. Davis had 23 points and a career-high five assists off the bench.

But it also helped that ODU got two season-best scoring performances off the bench.

Caden Diggs, a 6-foot-7 freshman from Waldorf, Maryland, came off the bench to score a career-high 10 points while Donovan Raymond, a 6-10 transfer from Hampton, added a season-high eight points, six rebounds and two assists.

"I'm extremely proud of our guys for stepping up tonight," Jones said. "You know, Caden, playing 23 minutes, doing the things that we know he's going to do a lot in his college career, it's great to finally see that happen for him.

"I tell Donovan every chance I get that his best basketball is ahead of him, that he's just got to stay patient and keep working.

"The cool thing about those two, and this is not to say that our other guys don't work, but Caden and Donovan are the most consistent guys in their individual workouts. There's not a day where they are not in the gym separately, on their own with a coach or a manager, getting their workouts in.

"They deserve the minutes they got tonight."

Sean Durugordon had 14 points and 10 rebounds and Stephaun Walker pulled down eight rebounds.

“We’re a team that’s not healthy right now,” Jones said when asked about Davis not starting and 18 combined points from Diggs and Raymond.

Point guard Jaden Johnson was sick and did not practice this week. He started, but went to the bench with two fouls less than four minutes into the game and did not play the rest of the first half.

ODU was so far ahead in the second half that Jones was able to rest Johnson the rest of the game.

Jones was pleased with how unselfish his players were. .

“When we win, we’re going to have about 15 assists,” Jones said. “When we don’t win, we’re going to have single digit assists.

“Tonight it is glaring when we share and glaring when we don’t. I was happy to see that and I’m happy to see that the message was received by our team.

“Also, the result tonight reinforces that message.”

It was the sixth loss in a row for the Chanticleers (8-13, 1-8), who seemed discombobulated by ODU’s swarming man-for-man defense, which denied Coastal open shots. Coastal made just 15 of 54 shots (27.8%).

Jones said assistant coaches Ryan Nadeu, Odell Hodge, and graduate assistant Jason Wade “did a tremendous job preparing our guys.”

ODU jumped on Coastal early and did not let up. Davis made a fallaway three-pointer almost nine minutes into the game to give the Monarchs their first double-digit lead, 16-6.

The lead was up to 15 late in the first half when the Monarchs blew the game open. Diggs made two jump shots, Davis a layup and a jumper and Durugordon two three throws over a two-minute stretch as the Monarchs took a 24-point lead.

Coastal’s Jordan Battle, the junior guard from Norfolk Collegiate, trimmed the margin to 21 with a three-point shot with 16 seconds left.

ODU didn’t let up in the second half as the Monarchs twice extended the lead to 28 in the second half. Jones began emptying his bench with five minutes left as all 15 healthy players on the roster played.

Jones said his team drew a lot of energy from the crowd.

"With the results we've had the last week and a half, thank you, thank you so much to our fan base," he said.

"I've said it in here (the post-game press room) many times, and it seems a lot of times it's been after a loss, but to be able to play in front of these fans, it's truly a blessing," he said. 

"The energy we felt when we walked out of the locker room today was tremendous. This is a special place, I'm lucky, I'm blessed, to be coaching here. We're lucky, we are all blessed to play in front of these amazing fans.

"Thank you, Monarch Nation."

NOTES: The crowd lifted ODU’s home attendance average to 5,131 for the season, which remains best in the Sun Belt. Arkansas State is a close second at 4,984. ODU has led the Sun Belt all three seasons since it joined the league in 2021-22 . . . ODU hits the road for most of the next month as the Monarchs play 7 of their 10 remaining games away from Chartway Arena. ODU is at App State on Wednesday, Jan. 29, and James Madison on Saturday, Feb. 1. . . . ODU’s remaining home games are against Texas State (Feb. 5), Marshall (Feb. 20) and Georgia State (Feb. 22).