NORFOLK, Va. – Slow starts continue to plague Old Dominion men’s basketball as the Monarchs dropped their final game of 2025, 81-73 to App State on Wednesday at Chartway Arena.
“[App State] definitely came in here ready to play, and I don’t think we did. We had a really spirited practice on Monday and another yesterday, and it didn’t translate, so back to the drawing board we go,” said ODU head coach Mike Jones.
“We have to understand what it takes to win in this league. You can look at the fight, but ultimately what we did on the court tonight was not good enough to beat App State or many other teams as well.”
Jordan Battle led ODU with 20 points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Caelum Swanton-Rodger finished with a new season high of 14 points, Jared Turner contributed 13 points, and KC Shaw also reached double figures with 10 points.
The Monarchs (4-11, 1-2 Sun Belt) shot 42.4% (25-for-59) from the field and 41.7% (10-for-24) from the perimeter, but shot 59.1% (13-for-22) at the free-throw line. ODU also scored more points off of turnovers (12-6) and off of fast break opportunities (19-14), but allowed 46 points in the paint and 20 second-chance points. App State also won the battle on the glass with 43 rebounds to ODU’s 28.
“The rebounding part is the most frustrating part because you go against a team like Maryland a couple days ago and for as poor as we played early in that game, we still matched them rebound for rebound and wound up out-rebounding them. If you can do that against a physical Big Ten team like that, you should be able to do that against teams in our league,” added Jones.
An early 7-0 run by the Mountaineers (9-6, 2-1) allowed them to build a 9-2 advantage at the 14:34 mark. Davis Jr. snapped the ODU scoring drought with a three-pointer from the top of the arc, but App State’s Kasen Jennings hit a jumper in response and Chad Moodie followed with a pair of buckets to push the visitor's lead to 17-7.
Swanton-Rodger got to the free-throw line at the 6:48 mark and proceeded to make both of his shots, but the Mountaineers countered with another 11 unanswered to go up, 34-13. LJ Thomas, who had missed the past three games due to injury, scored a layup before Turner nailed a triple from the right wing. App State’s Jalen Tot made a three of his own on the next possession, and Swanton-Rodger went 1-for-2 at the stripe as ODU trailed 37-19 at halftime.
App State held onto a double-digit lead for most of the second half. A Swanton-Rodger dunk and fastbreak layup by Shaw helped cut the deficit to 15, 39-24 with 17:47 remaining, but the guests answered with an Eren Banks three-pointer and a Michael Marcus Jr. layup.
Down 66-44 with just under five minutes to play, Swanton-Rodger scored five points to highlight a 7-0 Monarchs run. The senior forward scored a jumper in the paint at the 4:40 mark, Shaw followed with a layup, and Swanton-Rodger then capitalized on an and-one opportunity with 3:18 on the clock.
Down the stretch, Turner and Davis made two threes each to get ODU to within single digits, 77-68. It was too little too late though as the Mountaineers went 4-for-4 at the line to close out the game.
“This team needs to embrace what this league is,” continued Jones. “As tough as this game was, it’s going to be the same thing on Saturday. Obviously, we go on the road after that to Coastal and JMU, it’s going to be the same at those places. Every game is going to be like this. We have to be able to get off to better starts by being locked in and matching physicality early in the game.”
Up Next
ODU will be back in Chartway Arena this Saturday when the Monarchs welcome Georgia Southern for a 3:30 p.m. game.