By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion men’s basketball team lost a heartbreaker Wednesday night at Chartway Arena as Marshall rallied from a 17-point second-half deficit and edged the Monarchs, 81-79.
ODU played perhaps its best half of basketball in the first half, making 21-of-34 shots (61.8 percent) and rolling to a 13-point lead.
But the Monarchs cooled off considerably in the second half, making 11-of-29 shots (37.9 percent), and they missed seven of their last eight.
The Monarchs had a chance to send the game into overtime or win with a three-point shot when, with Marshall holding a two-point lead, the Herd’s Jalen Speer missed the front half of a one-and-one.
Scottie Hubbard rebounded and Head Coach Mike Jones quickly called a timeout with six seconds left.
Jordan Battle managed to get off a contested three-point shot but it missed and was rebounded by Marshall’s Caleb Hollenbach.
The victory continued a hot streak for Marshall (16-9 overall, 8-4 Sun Belt Conference) which has won nine of its last 13 games. Among the losses was a home defeat to No. 23 Miami of Ohio.
ODU (8-18, 4-9) played hard and well for most of the game and led for 36 of the game’s 40 minutes.
“It was a heartbreaking loss,” Jones said. “We had so much momentum going into halftime and made a three-point shot on our first possession but lost our mojo from there. We’re trying to stay positive and trying to improve. It’s hard to do that at times but we’re going to find a way.”
LJ Thomas led ODU with 18 points while KC Shaw added 16 and Jared Turner 11. But the best player on the court for ODU was 7-foot center Caelum Swanton-Rodger.
The senior from Calgary, Alberta had 15 points and three rebounds in just under 16 minutes.
Swanton-Rodger got ODU off to a fast start, scoring 10 points in the game’s first 4:45, including two dunks in the opening minutes.
Alas for ODU, he was in foul trouble much of the night and when he went to the bench with his fourth foul, Marshall rallied.
“I’ve said it so many times, we’re so good with Cal on the court,” Jones said. “A couple of defensive breakdowns got him his third foul and his fourth foul. These are the things that cost you.”
Swanton-Rodger’s last field goal in his 10-point stretch, a short jump shot, gave the Monarchs a 12-5 lead.
Then, with just under eight minutes to go, Turner made a three-point shot and Shaw an alley-oop dunk and the Monarchs led, 31-19.
Shaw added a jump shot a minute later to build the lead to 14 points, 33-19.
ODU led at the half, 47-34, much to the delight of a loud crowd of 4,367.
Thomas made a jump shot in the paint to give ODU a 56-39 lead with 17:31 left in the half.
ODU fended off several Marshall runs, but with Swanton-Rodger on the bench for most of the game’s last nine minutes, the Herd mounted a slow-but-sure comeback.
ODU concludes its current five-game stand with games against Georgia State on Saturday at 3:30 – it will be Senior Day and Alumni Night – and then Monday against Louisiana at 5.
ODU will retire the jersey of former All-American Ronnie Valentine at halftime on Saturday. The jersey retirement was postponed from Jan. 24, when ODU was scheduled to host Louisiana. The game was postponed because of anticipated inclement weather.
The postponement meant Valentine’s jersey will be retired on Valentine’s Day.
“Alumni Day is always going to be special around here with the rich tradition this program has,” Jones said. “But I think, other than Senior Night, the most important part of Saturday will be retiring Ronnie Valentine’s jersey. For all of us who wore that jersey or represent this university, he is one of the reasons why Old Dominion basketball is what it is. He’s our leading all-time scorer, one of our top 10 rebounders, and there were a lot of big wins when he played here. Old Dominion basketball was pretty much put on the map when he was in an Old Dominion jersey. I’m so very happy to see this happen and I hope we can celebrate it the right way, and that’s with a win.”
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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