RICHMOND, Va. – Old Dominion men’s basketball led 36-35 at halftime and was tied at 58-58 with 8:11 to play, but Richmond pulled away late for an 86-77 final on Saturday afternoon at the Robins Center.
“That was a tough one,” said ODU head coach Mike Jones after the loss. “We fought and fought and fought, but when we needed to make a play, we didn’t. We’ll go back to work and continue to try and get better as we prepare and get closer to our conference season.”
LJ Thomas shot 9-for-19 from the floor and led the Monarchs (3-7) with 19 points, one point shy of tying his season best. Robert Davis Jr. set new season highs with five three-pointers and 17 points, KC Shaw returned to action and also netted 17 points with a season high six assists, and Jordan Battle finished with 11 points. Battle, Thomas, and Drew McKenna (five points) led the effort on the glass with seven boards each.
ODU combined to shoot 37.5% (27-for-72) from the field, including 24.1% (7-for-29) from beyond the arc, and 80.0% (16-for-20) at the free-throw line.
There were 11 lead changes and nine ties throughout the game. Richmond had more production in the paint (50-34) and off the bench (51-29). ODU held UofR to just four made threes, but the Spiders (8-1) converted 18 of their 28 shots at the line. The hosts also had a slight edge in the rebounding battle, 45-41.
Richmond built an early 9-4 lead, but a baseline jumper by McKenna and a free throw by Ben Nacey cut the deficit to 13-11 at the 11:39 mark. A Battle three ball from the left wing kept ODU within 16-14, and Shaw made a pair of free throws as the Monarchs trailed 18-16 with 9:30 on the clock.
After the Spiders went up 21-16, Battle scored a driving layup, Davis Jr. evened the game with a triple, and Nacey made it an 8-0 run and gave ODU the lead, 23-21 with a bucket down low.
The two sides traded the lead another eight times over the final six and a half minutes. Davis Jr. made another shot from distance to give the Monarchs a 29-27 advantage with 4:20 remaining in the half. After a Thomas layup made it 31-30, the Spiders put together two straight buckets and led 35-33 with under a minute to go, but Davis Jr. knocked down another three ball as ODU went into the locker room with a one-point lead.
Early in the second half, Richmond seized the momentum as three-pointers from Mikkel Tyne and Jaden Daughtry gave the home team control, 47-39 with just over 16:03 to go in the game.
With 11:03 remaining, Shaw tipped out an offensive rebound to Thomas, who nailed the deep ball from the right side as ODU pulled to within 53-48. Shaw would earn a trip to the line with 10:11 in the game and make both of his shots, and Davis Jr. sunk his fourth three to trim the Richmond lead to 55-53 at the 9:30 mark. The junior from Detroit, Michigan then evened the game 56-56 with his fifth deep ball 23 seconds later.
Tied at 58-58, the hosts took over with 10 unanswered points. Caelum Swanton-Rodger completed an and-one opportunity and Shaw added a couple of free throws to get the Monarchs to within 68-63 with 5:17 left. The transfer from Maryland-Eastern Shore added two more free throws to keep ODU within 74-71 at the 2:17 mark, but UofR responded with another 6-0 spurt.
A Thomas layup trimmed the Spider lead to six, 83-77 with 23 seconds left, but Richmond’s Aiden Argabright made three free-throws to close out the game.
“It was a play here and a play there,” continued Jones. “We’re fighting for a loose ball on the rebound, don’t get it, but now our hands are stuck in the cookie jar a little bit. They get an and-one off of that, and that happened twice.”
“A couple of times where we’re going and trying to be aggressive and initiate contact, miss at the rim, and they’re able to get a leak out from there. So just a couple of plays here and there really killed us. Obviously, Richmond played well and did a lot of really good things. You look up and it’s a tie game, then you look up again and you’re down seven.”
Up Next
Next Saturday, Dec. 13 will see the Monarchs traveling to Fairfax, Virginia for a 12:30 p.m. meeting with George Mason.
“Just like Richmond, George Mason is a Top 50 ranked team right now. They have not lost a game yet and they’re going to be tough. The good thing is we get a week to prepare, just like tonight. It allowed us to freshen our bodies a little bit. But we need to win a game, and we’ve got to figure out a way to do that, and George Mason is the next opportunity we have.”