Women's Basketball Blows Past Elizabeth City State to Give DeLisha Milton-Jones her 100th ODU Victory

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – DeLisha Milton-Jones’ 100^th victory as the Old Dominion women’s head basketball coach was among the most lopsided in ODU’s history.

Simaru Fields led a balanced ODU attack with 14 points, Simone Cunningham added 11 points, and Kelsey Thompson scored 10 as the Monarchs rolled past Elizabeth City State University, 106-32, Friday night at Chartway Arena.

The 74-point margin was ODU’s largest ever in Chartway Arena, which opened in 2002, and the Monarchs’ largest victory margin since a 116-26 triumph over Indiana State in 1996-97, when the Monarchs finished second in the NCAA Tournament.

It was also the largest margin of victory in Milton-Jones’ coaching career. It was the first time ODU scored 100 or more points since 2004, when the Monarchs defeated Hofstra, 105-62.

Milton-Jones began her head coaching career at Pepperdine, where she took a downtrodden program and won 22 games her second season there. After spending a year as the top assistant at Syracuse, she came to ODU in 2021 at the height of the pandemic.

She has won 100 games and lost 60 at ODU. Overall, her record is 132-92.  

Milton-Jones was an All-American at Florida, where as a senior she won the Wade Trophy, given to the nation’s best player. She had a long professional career, winning two WNBA championships with Los Angeles Sparks and helping the United States Olympic team win two Gold Medals.

Milton-Jones came into the Carol Hudson Media Room at Chartway Arena dripping wet. Her players doused her with their water bottles in the locker room.

“I’m appreciative of being able to be in the game this long and to have this type of success,” she said. “I think the I’ve been here the longest outside of my Sparks career.

“I’m really appreciative of all of the support I get from the community and from the athletic department.”

As for her players, “I’m going to make them run 100 wind springs for spraying me,” she said with a smile.

Thompson, a senior from Mobile, Alabama, noted that 15 players can make All-Sun Belt but only one coach wins Sun Belt Coach of the Year.

“There are so many awards for players and not that many for coaches,” she said. “If it was defensive coach of the year, she would get it. If it was great person of the year, she would get that. If it was transfer coach of the year, she would get that.

“She’s just a great coach.”

Elizabeth City State is a Division II school located an hour south of Norfolk. The Vikings were 8-17 last season in their first year under coach Ebony Turner, a Richmond graduate. The Vikings were picked to finish tenth in the 12-team CIAA.

ODU (1-1) was coming off a disappointing, 58-52, loss to UMass in its home opener on Monday in which the Monarchs shot poorly, especially inside the lane.

The Monarchs dominated the Vikings (0-1) in every category. ODU held a 61-34 edge in rebounding, outscored the Vikings in the paint, 66-16; had 62 bench points to 10 for Elizabeth City and outscored the Vikings 36-0, on fast breaks.

Milton-Jones went to her bench early and kept subbing in players throughout in part to give substitutes some playing time and in part to not run up the score.

Even so, the outcome was never in doubt.

Alisha Nunley made a three-point shot off the fast break to make it 30-5 late in the first quarter. Hama’ya Fielder finished off the last minute of the second quarter with a pair of three-point shots just 12 seconds apart and ODU led, 60-12.

Mariah Clayton took a pass from Fielder and made a layup to give ODU a 100-30 lead with 3:02 left in the game.

Laila Walker, the transfer from ULM, came off the bench to score seven points, grab 10 rebounds and added an assist and a blocked shot, all in 11 minutes.

All 15 players scored and each played six minutes or more. Fields had the most playing time of any ODU starter at 22:30.

Milton-Jones went with a different starting lineup than she had against UMass that emphasized speed over size.

“We wanted to get as far away as we could from the loss that we suffered against UMass, with our low shooting percentage,” she said. “It was just abysmal across the board.

“So, tonight it was refreshing to see a lot of different lineups and many people doing great things.”

ODU next plays against Delaware on Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Chartway Arena. for Military Appreciation Night.