HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Old Dominion men’s basketball built an 18-point lead in the first half, but could not hold off Southern Miss in the second as the Monarchs fell, 86-81 on Saturday at Reed Green Coliseum.
“We didn’t play good enough defensively and we didn’t take care of the basketball well enough to be able to win,” said ODU head coach Mike Jones. “That’s not going to beat many teams what we did here today, so we’ve got to be better.”
KC Shaw opened the scoring with a couple of made jumpers, and back-to-back threes from Jared Turner and Zacch Wiggins pushed the lead to 12-4 with 16:26 to go in the first half. The Golden Eagles (15-14, 8-8 Sun Belt) put together an 8-0 run to pull to within one, 17-16 at the 13:24 mark. The Monarchs (10-19, 6-10) responded with an 8-0 push of their own, highlighted by two more threes by Turner and Scottie Hubbard. Jordan Battle was fouled on a three-point attempt and made each of his shots, and Shaw went 2-for-2 at the line as Old Dominion led 30-18 at the 10:04 mark.
USM’s Curt Lewis hit a three of his own and Djahi Binet followed with a dunk to cut the Monarch lead to single digits, 30-23. Turner and Wiggins then combined for three-straight deep balls to highlight an 11-0 run that put ODU up 41-23 with 4:03 left in the half. Israel Hart knocked down a couple of triples in the closing minutes and the hosts trimmed Old Dominion’s lead to 47-40 as the teams went into the locker rooms.
Southern Miss took over control early in the second half. A Tylik Weeks layup capped off a 6-0 run that tied the game at 50-50 with 17:19 on the clock. Battle got to the line and converted both of his free throws to regain the lead, but that would be the last time ODU was in front. The hosts countered with seven unanswered points and the Monarchs would try and play catch up the rest of the way.
Donovan Raymond scored a jumper in the paint and LJ Thomas followed with a layup to pull to within 59-58 with 12:05 left in the game. But five points from Isaac Taveras and a dunk by Binet gave the Golden Eagles some cushion, 66-63.
The Monarchs again fought back to within a point, 78-77 as Shaw scored a layup, Thomas made a free throw, and Battle buried a three-pointer. After USM went up 83-79 with 27 seconds left, Hubbard was fouled and sank both of his shots to keep ODU within striking distance. Hubbard had a couple looks at a go-ahead three with less than 10 seconds left, but his first shot was off the mark and his second attempt was blocked from behind. The Monarchs were forced to foul Binet with four seconds left and he made both of his free throws to round out the scoring.
Shaw led the offense with 18 points, Battle followed with 17 points and went a perfect 7-for-7 at the line, Thomas finished with 15 points and six rebounds, and Turner added 12 points on 4-for-9 shooting from the perimeter.
The Monarchs shot 25-for-58 (43.1%) from the floor, 10-for-21 (47.6%) from long range, and 21-for-27 (77.8%) at the charity stripe. ODU scored more points off turnovers (27-17), more second-chance points (14-9), and more points off the bench (22-7). However, the team allowed 46 points in the paint, 19 points on the fastbreak, and was beaten on the glass, 39-25.
“We missed a golden opportunity, but we’ll have a couple of days here before we get to Marshall and will talk about things that we can be better at. But we’ve got to take a deep breath here. From top to bottom, we’ve got to be better and we’ve got to go to work on trying to be better on Tuesday.”
Up Next
Old Dominion will have a couple of days to prepare for a road game at Marshall this Tuesday. Tipoff at the Cam Henderson Center is scheduled for a 7 p.m.