SAN MARCOS, Texas – Old Dominion men’s basketball could not overcome another slow start as the Monarchs dropped their Sun Belt road game at Texas State, 81-64 on Saturday afternoon at Strahan Arena.
“We missed a golden opportunity to take a huge leap, with a win today, in the standings and seeding for the conference tournament,” said ODU head coach Mike Jones. “It’s disappointing, but we’re really looking forward to having a five-game homestand before we go back out on the road to complete regular season play.”
KC Shaw led ODU with a 20-point, 11-rebound double-double, adding one assist, one steal, and one block to his final stats line. Jordan Battle added 16 points, 12 of them in the first half, while knocking down five three-pointers. Jared Turner contributed seven points with three boards, two assists, and two blocks.
The Monarchs (7-16, 4-7 Sun Belt) shot 32.8% (20-for-61) from the field, including 22.2% (6-for-27) from beyond the arc, and 81.8% (18-for-22) at the free-throw line.
Texas State’s DJ Hall opened the scoring with back-to-back threes before Battle answered with one of his own. Another triple by the Norfolk native narrowed the gap, 10-6 at the 17:17 mark, but the Bobcats (13-11, 6-6) scored seven unanswered points for a 17-6 lead. Zacch Wiggins halted the run with a layup, Turner followed with a three-pointer, and Donovan Raymond went 2-for-2 at the free-throw line to get the Monarchs back to within four, 17-13 with 11:44 left in the opening half.
An LJ Thomas floater in the paint and a steal and layup by Raymond trimmed the Bobcat lead to 21-17 with 9:54 on the clock, but TXST took off again with a 10-0 push. Shaw made a couple of layups and Battle hit a pair of threes in the final two minutes as ODU went into the locker room trailing, 42-33.
Texas State put together a 13-0 run early in the second half, extending their lead to 20, 55-35 at the 15:44 mark. Battle’s fifth three-pointer of the day and a made basket by Shaw cut the deficit to 13, 65-52 with 6:48 left. Down the stretch, TXST’s Robert Fields and Hall combined for a 7-0 run as the Bobcats went back up by 20, 76-56 at the 2:54 mark. Shaw scored another six points and Turner added a tip-in to whittle the Bobcat lead down to 15, 79-64 with one minute left. Hall then rounded out the scoring with a couple of free throws with 33 seconds remaining.
Up Next
The Monarchs will open a five-game homestand next Wednesday, Feb. 4 when they host the ULM Warhawks for a 7 p.m. game at Chartway Arena.
“As always, everything is about getting the best seed we can,” continued Jones. “So we’ve got to take the lessons we learned today. We got outplayed, and we need to come out ready to fight like hell on Wednesday.”