PHILADELPHIA – Old Dominion men’s basketball fought back from a 10-point deficit and led 67-64 with less than five and a half minutes to play. The Monarchs could not hold off Drexel late though as they dropped a close game, 75-71 on Sunday afternoon at the Daskalakis Center.
“It came down to execution at the end of the game,” said ODU head coach Mike Jones. “I wish we could have gotten the whistle on that last call down two. We’ve got to make our free throws.”
“But I’m going to be proud of the guys. Obviously on the road this year we haven’t fared very well, and the first half was very reminiscent of Miami of Ohio’s first half and GW’s first half. I thought we came out much better in the second half to still fight it out until the end. Disappointing loss, but we’ve got to continue to work and continue to get better.”
Down by one, 59-58 at the 8:15 mark in the second half, LJ Thomas scored a layup and then completed an and-one opportunity to put the Monarchs (3-4) in front, 63-59. Drexel’s Shane Blakeney cut that lead to 65-64 with a three-pointer.
With 3:50 left in the game, the Dragons (3-4) put together a 6-0 run to pull ahead 70-67. Jordan Battle earned a trip to the free-throw line with 1:17 remaining, and the Norfolk native made both of his free throws to get the Monarchs back within a point at 70-69.
Drexel’s Villiam Garcia Adsten then hit a deep ball with 53 seconds on the clock as ODU trailed by four, 73-69. Caelum Swanton-Rodger was fouled and proceeded to make both of his shots. Needing another basket to tie or a three to win, Old Dominion called a timeout with eight seconds left, but an ODU turnover allowed the Dragons to hold on.
“It was a heated game, a physical game,” added Jones. “I give Coach Spiker all the credit in the world. His teams at Army were incredibly tough, incredibly physical. That is Drexel’s mentality here. If you talk to anybody in the CAA, they’ll tell you no matter who is on the team, his teams play incredibly hard.”
“This was a boxing match. Towards the end of the game, both of our guys got spaghetti legs a little bit.”
Battle led the Monarchs with 21 points, shooting 3-for-4 from distance and 4-for-4 at the line, and pulled down a team-high nine rebounds. He added five assists and one steal to his totals. Robert Davis Jr. knocked down three triples for a season high 15 points, Thomas shot 6-for-11 from the floor and tallied 13 points, and Swanton-Rodger had 11 points.
Free throw shooting did hurt ODU with the Monarchs making just 9-of-16 shots at the charity stripe, while the Dragons shot 16-for-21 at the line. Old Dominion also shot 27-for-62 (43.5%) from the field and 8-for-17 (47.1%) from the perimeter.
Asked about what he liked from his team, Jones said, “Just the response. We went down 10 in the first half, and we responded better in the second half. So just things that we’re growing upon and obviously we want to win. We didn’t, so let’s make sure we emphasize the things we got better at and then once we get healthy, we’ll be much better equipped to do it as well.”
Swanton-Rodger opened the first half with a 1-for-2 effort at the free-throw line, but the Dragons seized control as Kevon Vanderhorst knocked down a triple and Villiam Garcia Adsten followed with a layup. The hosts pushed their lead to 9-3 before Battle found Davis Jr. for a three ball from the right side of the arc.
Drexel pulled away again, 15-6 with a pair of threes by Blakeney and Vanderhorst. The Monarchs continued to chip away at the deficit, with Donovan Raymond going 1-for-2 at the line and then scoring in the paint as ODU trailed 18-13 at the 11:20 mark.
After the Dragons went back up by 10, 25-15 with 8:27 to go in the first half, Battle started to find his rhythm. The Norfolk native started off a 7-0 run with a deep ball from the top of the arc and added a jumper in the paint. Davis Jr. then narrowed the gap to 25-22 with a layup.
A Scottie Hubbard steal led to another three-pointer for Battle with 5:06 on the clock, and he then knotted the game at 27-27 at the 4:41 mark. He would even the score again at 29-29 and Davis Jr. put ODU back in front, 31-29 with just under three minutes, but Blakeney and Josh Reed responded with back-to-back threes. Jared Turner then closed out the half with a shot from long range as the Monarchs trailed 35-34 at the break.
“Tonight was one of our better defensive efforts. The guys guarded their stuff. They weren’t able to get to the rim at will. We gave up too many threes at times, but give Drexel credit. They’ve got guys that can drive it and shoot it, and a really good offense can beat a good defense sometimes.”
Both teams scored 28 points in the paint and eight points on fast breaks, but Drexel edged ODU in points off turnovers (13-8), second-chance points (13-11), and points off the bench (33-11).
Up Next
ODU plays again Tuesday when the Monarchs square off against Villanova. Tipoff at Finneran Pavilion is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“It’s a game that we’re looking forward to. We came up here to play two. We didn’t get the first one, so we’re going to go to battle to try and get one on Tuesday against a very good basketball team.”