WASHINGTON, D.C. – Old Dominion men’s basketball trailed by three, 44-41 at halftime, but George Washington scored 26 points in the first eight minutes of the second half to pull away for a 96-73 final on Saturday night at the Charles E. Smith Center.
“We didn’t come out in the second half with the energy that we needed” said ODU head coach Mike Jones. “They went on that run, had us down by 10. We come back and go up by four, and we showed a lot of resiliency there. I am disappointed in the second half. Obviously it was not our best night.”
KC Shaw and Robert Davis Jr. paced the Monarchs (2-2) with 14 points apiece. Shaw, a transfer from Maryland-Eastern Shore, shot 4-for-8 from the floor and made 6-of-8 shots at the free-throw line. He pulled down three rebounds and added one block to his final line. Davis Jr., the Sun Belt Preseason Player of the Year, went 4-for-8 from the perimeter and also had three boards with one assist.
Jared Turner was next with nine points on 3-for-5 shooting from distance, and Scottie Hubbard and LJ Thomas contributed eight points each. Hubbard, a Washington, D.C. native, made 2-of-6 shots from beyond the arc and led ODU with seven rebounds and two steals.
After GW’s Rafael Castro opened the scoring with a 1-for-2 effort at the line, Jordan Battle got ODU on the board with an outside jumper. The Revs (4-0) scored on their next two possessions, but a triple by Hubbard and a free throw from Thomas knotted the game at 6-6 at the 16:26 mark.
Davis Jr. and Turner then put the Monarchs in front, 9-6 with back-to-back threes. The hosts countered with an 8-0 run to regain control 18-14 with 11:21 left in the first half. Another 8-0 run by GW increased the gap to 28-18 with 8:01 on the clock, but two more threes by Davis Jr. and a triple from Battle highlighted a 12-0 answer as ODU retook the lead, 30-28 with 4:50 left.
Thomas found Turner for another deep ball, Drew McKenna went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe, and Thomas got his layup to fall as the Monarchs were up 36-30 at the 3:23 mark. A Garrett Johnson three-pointer allowed the Revs to retake the lead, 38-36 with just under two minutes left. McKenna got to the line and sank both of his shots to tie the game at 38-38, and a Donovan Raymond layup evened the score again at 40-40 with 1:07 to play. Jean Aranguren and Tre Dinkins both made their shots in the closing minute and Shaw went 1-for-2 at the charity stripe as the Monarchs went into the locker room trailing, 44-41.
GW scored six unanswered to open the second half and outscored ODU, 16-3 to push its lead to 68-47 at the 13:04 mark. The Revs put another 8-0 run together late as the Monarchs fell behind, 89-58 with less than four minutes to play. That’s when Shaw scored six straight points to try and spark the offense, but with 2:42 left in the game, the deficit proved too much to overcome.
Turner answered a Bubu Benjamin three-pointer with one of his own and Shaw made a late jumper as ODU trailed 96-71 with 39 seconds remaining. Rieco Hellams was then fouled and converted both of his free throws to round out the scoring.
“When we lose, it’s my fault, and today is no different,” continued Jones. “I don’t want to start saying this guy didn’t do this or us collectively on the floor didn’t do this. This is on me, but we needed to be a tougher team, and I did not prepare us to do that.”
“We had 11 assists at halftime, we only had three in the second half. We also had seven turnovers in the first half, a lot of them pick-sixes, which is too many. We had nine more turnovers in the second half and finished with 16. The connectedness that we needed to have today, we only had in spurts. And playing a team like that, we cannot do that.”
Old Dominion combined to shoot 38.7% (24-for-62) from the floor, 41.7% (10-for-24) from the arc, and 68.2% (15-for-22) at the free-throw line. ODU made four more threes (10-6) and outrebounded the Revolutionaries (41-38), but GW had more production in the paint (44-18), off turnovers (23-5), on fast breaks (20-8), on second-chance opportunities (17-13), and off the bench (36-24).
“This was a wonderful opportunity for us against a really good team,” added Jones. “GW is going to be one of the best teams in the A-10, and they’re going to play postseason basketball. It’s an incredible challenge for us, but I feel like we should have been better tonight.”
Up Next
ODU will be in Cincinnati, Ohio this Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game at Xavier.