STATESBORO, Ga. - Old Dominion women’s basketball dropped its second game in a row, falling to Georgia Southern, 77-60 on Saturday afternoon at the Hill Convocation Center.
“Tonight’s game had us off rhythm in ways we couldn’t recover from,” said ODU head coach DeLisha Milton-Jones. “It’s practically unheard of for us to be out rebounded. When shots aren’t falling for us it’s imperative for our defensive efforts to kick in and balance our chances of success. Wins are critical at this juncture so that we can stay in the hunt for top four in the conference.”
Simone Cunningham got ODU (10-7, 2-3 SBC) on the board first with a jumper in the paint 15 seconds after winning the tip. Cunningham would make the first quarter her own with eight points in the opening stanza. The senior forward from Pleasant Grove, Alabama put the Silver and Blue up by three with five minutes left to go up, 10-7. The final five minutes of action would be controlled by the Eagles (12-4, 5-1 SBC) who went on an 11-5 run to go up 18-15 at the end of 1.
The Eagles out scored the Monarchs 17-8 in the second quarter. Mckenna Eddings gave GS a nine-point lead with 2:28 left to play after finishing a layup in the paint to go up, 32-23. Shanti Simmons came back a minute later and made a second-chance three-pointer to go up 12 at the half, 35-23.
Riley Stack got the third quarter rolling with a made layup after Cunningham sparked a fast break with a steal on GS’ Kishyah Anderson. Kesley Thompson netted a deep ball the Monarchs’ next trip down the court and the quick 5-0 run forced Georgia Southern to burn a timeout. Kayla Cleaveland brought the home team’s lead back to a dozen with a made three-pointer from the wing. Jamiria Jones scored a layup the next time down, and Eddings finished in the paint to go up by 16, 48-32. Nevaeh Scott scored ODU’s last basket of the quarter with 23 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 13 but a made three pointer with four seconds left by Eddings brought GS’ lead back to 16, 56-40 with one quarter left to play.
The fourth quarter was a back-and-forth affair started by a Cunningham layup 44 seconds into the start followed by a pair of made free throws by GS’ Anderson. ODU cut the deficit to 15 after a made layup by Scott at the 6:54 mark and then to 13 with a Simaru Fields layup at 6:13 after she intercepted a pass from Jones. Jones came back the next possession and finished in the paint to go up, 64-49. With two minutes left of action Destiny Garrett would finish in the paint to go up by 21 for the Eagles largest lead, 74-53. Stack came back down the court and made it from deep for her only three of the afternoon. Fields scored the Monarchs’ final four points of the game with a driving layup at 1:11 and a tip-in layup with 36 seconds remaining. Garrett scored the final bucket of the game with 10 seconds and the Monarchs fell, 77-60 in enemy territory.
Cunningham and Fields both finished with 15 points and Stack had 13 on 6-for-13 shooting. The Monarchs shot 43.1% from the field, 23.1% from behind the arc, and 50% at the line (7-for-14). GS outrebounded the Monarchs 44-to-31 and went 10-for-10 at the charity stripe while shooting 53% from deep with nine made three-pointers. ODU edged the Eagles on points off of turnovers (19-17) but GS held the advantage on second chance points (20-8). The Monarchs scored 38 points in the paint and 15 on the fast break.
UP NEXT:
The Monarchs return to Chartway to face App State on Wednesday, Jan. 14 at 6:30 p.m. for Championship Effort and 2000’s Throwback Night.