ODU Men's Basketball Falls in Double OT, 83-77 to Troy

By Harry Minium

NORFOLK, Va. – An Old Dominion basketball team that has struggled much of this season gave the home fans a lot to cheer about Wednesday night before coming up just short against the Sun Belt Conference leader.

Troy finally pulled away in the final minutes of the second overtime to claim an 83-77 victory over the Monarchs before a Chartway Arena crowd of 5,263.

ODU was led by KC Shaw, the transfer from Maryland-Eastern Shore, who poured in a career-high 34 points in spite of often being double teamed by the Trojans.

The Monarchs also played outstanding defense against the Sun Belt's most prolofic offensive team. 

But in the end, as has so often been the case this season, the Monarchs came up a couple of plays short. 

Troy (14-6 overall, 7-1 Sun Belt) entered Wednesday’s game on a roll.

Troy had won three games in a row, by an average of 24 points each, and eight of its last nine. Troy is the defending Sun Belt Conference champion and eliminated ODU in the quarterfinals of last year’s Sun Belt Tournament.

Even so, the Monarchs (6-15, 3-6) had their chances to win.

Shaw gave ODU a 54-53 lead on a breakway dunk, assisted by Robert Davis Jr., with 6:30 left.

Shaw made a turnaround jump shot with 3:52 left that gave ODU a 60-57 lead.

His foul shot with 2:30 left upped the lead to four, 63-59, and the crowd was on its feet cheering.

ODU still led by one with 15 seconds left when Davis went to the foul line. He made the first, but not the second, and with four seconds left, Troy's Thomas Dowd made a turnaround jump shot to send the game into overtime.

Curiously, on a night when the whistles didn’t favor ODU, it was Troy’s only basket of the final 9:20. The Trojans scored all 12 of their other points in the final nine minutes on free throws.

ODU Head Coach Mike Jones spent much of the evening chewing on the game officials, but was circumspect to criticize the refs during his post-game press conference.

Seng had a chance to win it for Troy at the end of the first overtime but his jump shot rimmed out just before the buzzer sounded.

ODU quicky fell behind by five in the second overtime and could not catch up.

The Monarchs trailed by three, 80-77, with 45 seconds left when Jordan Battle’s three-pointer rimmed out. Troy rebounded and Victor Valdes, who scored 21 points, was fouled and made both free throws to build the lead to five.

The Monarchs then committed two turnovers in the final 16 seconds.

Jones described himself as “distraught” with yet another close ODU loss.

“We had a tremendous effort tonight, and we had a great environment here tonight,” he said. “I’m so disappointed that we couldn’t get over the hump.

“We’ve had six conference losses, and in four of them, we were literally one play away, and that’s a tough pill to swallow.

“On the positive side, we were right there against one of the better teams in our league. We showed ourselves and everybody else that we can go toe to toe with anybody.

“We just have to get over the hump.”

Battle scored 16 points for ODU and LJ Thomas added 12.

ODU outscored the Trojans from the field, 59-54, but were outscored from the foul line, 29-18.

Troy controlled the boards, outrebounding ODU, 47-37, and outscored the Monarchs, 16-6, on second-chance points.

ODU announced earlier Wednesday that Saturday’s game with Louisiana was rescheduled for Monday, February 16, because of the snow showers expected to blanket much of the eastern United States this weekend. That will be the final home game of the season for the Monarchs, who will hold their senior night two days earlier against Georgia State.

Former ODU All-American Ronnie Valentine was to have his jersey retired on Saturday. Instead, his jersey will be retired on Feb. 14, at halftime of the Georgia State game. That means ODU will pay homage to its seniors, alumni and the University’s career leading scorer in the same night.

The Monarchs embark on a two-game road trip next week, at Arkansas State on Wednesday, Jan. 28, and then at Texas State on Saturday, Jan. 31.

Jones said ODU is banged up and welcomed the seven-day break between games.

“If we were playing Saturday night, I would be excited about playing,” Jones said. “But we don’t play until Wednesday and I’m so excited about the chance to help these guys get their bodies right, and then we’ll try to get two wins on the road.”

The Monarchs return to Chartway Arena for home games against ULM on Wednesday, Feb. 4, and then host Ohio on Saturday, Feb. 7, in the second round of the MAC-Sun Belt Challenge.

Minium is ODU's Senior Executive Writer for Athletics. Contact him at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram

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