By Harry Minium
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The Old Dominion men’s basketball team bolted to a big early lead and then held off a furious ULM rally and defeated the Warhawks, 87-80, in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament Tuesday night in the Pensacola Bay Center.
The Monarchs broke out to a 14-0 lead in the game’s first three minutes, led by as many as 19 points and held the lead throughout.
The Warhawks finally a made serious run in the final minutes, trimming the lead to five, 85-80, with 26 seconds left on a Lavell Brodnex layup.
The Monarchs still led by five with 11 seconds left when ULM’s Krystian Lewis fired up a three-point shot that missed.
Zacch Wiggins rebounded for the Monarchs, and then made two free throws with eight seconds left that sealed the victory.
KC Shaw led the Monarchs with 25 points and had nine rebounds and seven assists.
Robert Davis Jr., who was out with an injury much of February, tallied 15 points, his first double-figure game since scoring 20 points at Georgia Southern on Jan. 16. Davis made four of six three-point shots.
Jared Turner added 15 while tying his career high with five made threes, LJ Thomas scored 12 points and Jordan Battle had 10.
After playing brilliantly most of the first half, ODU’s defense wasn’t as good as it needed to be in the second half, said ODU Head Coach Mike Jones.
“But I’ll take it,” he said. “I don’t care if it’s pretty or ugly, as long as we get to play tomorrow, that’s all that matters to me.”
“The first game in a tournament is always the toughest. We came out very strong and took every punch they made. It got a little dicey toward the end, but we were able to maintain it.”
ODU (12-20), the tournament’s 11th seed, takes on 10th-seeded Georgia Southern (16-15) Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. ET in the tournament’s second round.
The Monarchs must win five games in five nights to advance to Monday’s championship game.
The Monarchs are 0-2 this season against Georgia Southern (16-15), but both games were close. The Monarchs fell to the Eagles, 93-86 on Jan. 3 in Norfolk and then 12 days later lost at Georgia Southern, 87-84.
Georgia Southern slumped toward the end of the regular season, losing six of its last eight games, but finished on a high note, knocking off No. 2 seed Marshall, 99-82.
“It’s going to come down to defense,” Jones said. “In both our games against them they scored a bunch of points.”
“We’re not scoring 100 points so we have to figure out a way to get some stops.”
ULM (4-28) upset ODU earlier this season in Chartway Arena in a game Jones called his team’s worst loss of the season. His Monarchs were much better on Tuesday night.
They shot well, making 13-of-20 three-pointers, played tenacious defense much of the game, shared the ball (they had 19 assists to ULM’s eight) and outrebounded the Warhawks by four, 36-32.
“We weren’t locked in in our first game against them,” Jones said. “We’d lost a game at Texas State and were feeling sorry for ourselves.”
“Obviously, we came out this game firing on all cylinders. We realized how much that missed opportunity cost us.”
ULM kept it relatively close from the foul line, where the Warhawks made 29-of-34 free throws. ODU was 14-of-22.
ODU was without 7-foot center Caelum Swanton-Rodger most of the game as he went down with an injury early in the first half. Turner, a 6-8 forward, played in the post position much of the game and played well.
Jones said it is questionable whether Swanton-Rodger will return Wednesday night.
The Monarchs burst to the 14-0 lead on a run capped by a Battle three-point shot with 17:08 to go.
Lewis, who had 27 points and made 17-of-18 free throws, broke the ULM drought with a layup followed by a foul shot, but the Monarchs extended the lead to 19 points, 27-8, on a Turner three-pointer with 12:20 left.
The Warhawks trimmed the lead to six on two Lewis free throws with 6:35 left. But the Monarchs responded, with Shaw picking off a pass, and then passing behind him, between his legs to Davis, who made a three-pointer with 5:11 to go.
Forty-five seconds later, Shaw made a layup to build the lead back to 11.
ODU maintained a double-digit lead throughout most of the second half until the final minutes.
“We scored enough points to win tonight,” Jones said. “But it got a little too close at the end.”
“Obviously, we’re going to have to play better defense to beat Georgia Southern.”