WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – Old Dominion men’s basketball cut a 14-point deficit down to one early in the second half, only to see William & Mary pull away again for an 88-75 final on Sunday afternoon at Kaplan Arena.
Jordan Battle scored 22 of his season high 24 points in the second half, shooting 7-for-13 from the floor, 4-for-8 from beyond the arc, and a perfect 6-for-6 at the free-throw line. He also led ODU on the glass with seven rebounds. Robert Davis Jr. and LJ Thomas finished with 14 points each, and Zacch Wiggins turned in a nine-point effort.
The Monarchs (3-6) shot 41.5% (27-for-65) for the game, 26.5% (9-for-34) from distance, and 92.3% (12-for-13) at the charity stripe.
But the Tribe (7-2) turned 16 ODU turnovers into 20 points and outscored the Monarchs in the paint, 42-34. W&M also out-rebounded ODU, 39-27.
“Give William & Mary credit," said ODU head coach Mike Jones. "They play a fun style of basketball getting up and down. It’s frustrating because we had full media segments where we held them to two points, held them to a very low efficiency offensively, and we did well offensively. But it just wasn’t consistent enough.”
“Love the fight back to cut it to one, but it’s frustrating.”
Scottie Hubbard drove the baseline and scored a floater from the right side for ODU’s first basket of the game, and Davis Jr. followed with a three-pointer from the right side of the arc for ODU’s first lead, 5-2 at the 17:53 mark. After W&M took back the lead 6-5, Jared Turner answered with a long two from the right corner, but the Tribe scored nine unanswered to pull ahead, 15-7 with 11:34 to play in the first half.
Thomas scored a couple of fastbreak layups to cut the deficit to 15-11, but W&M pushed its lead to double digits, 23-13 with another six straight points. Down 29-19, Drew McKenna helped narrow the gap with a jumper and a 2-for-2 effort at the free-throw line. Another layup by McKenna and a basket by Battle trimmed the W&M lead to 31-27 with 2:31 to go in the opening stanza.
The Tribe put together a late 8-0 run though, and Wiggins scored a fastbreak dunk as the Monarchs went into the locker room trailing, 39-29.
Down by 14 early in the second half, Thomas kicked the ball out to Battle for a three ball. The Norfolk native then completed an old-fashioned three-point play, Wiggins followed with a three ball, and Davis Jr. capped off the 12-0 run with another triple as ODU was back within two, 45-43 with just under 15 minutes to play.
Battle earned a trip to the line and made both of his free throws to get ODU to within a point, 49-48 with 13:02 left. The Monarchs were forced to burn a timeout at the 9:50 mark however after the Tribe went back up by 10, 61-51.
Battle got to the line again at the 8:15 mark and converted both of his free throws, but William & Mary’s Kilian Brockhoff answered with a three ball as the Tribe led 66-56 with less than eight minutes to go. Battle and Davis Jr. both hit multiple threes down the stretch, but the Tribe kept a double-digit lead the rest of the way and held on for the 88-75 final.
“Their style of play is back breaking. For a split second you’re not locked in and it’s a backdoor layup. And it can demoralize you. We’ve got to get to the point of maturity where that doesn’t demoralize us. It’s just one play and let’s move on to the next one.”
“It’s just too many instances this afternoon where that just didn’t happen.”
Up Next
ODU travels to Richmond next Saturday, Dec. 6 for a 12:30 p.m. meeting with the Richmond Spiders.