NORFOLK, Va. – Norfolk State looked to come back from a 20-point deficit late in the second half, but Old Dominion men’s basketball held on to defeat its crosstown rival, 71-60 on Wednesday night at Joseph G. Echols Memorial Hall.
With the win, the Monarchs are off to 4-0 start for the first time in 17 years. ODU opened the 2009-10 season with wins over Bethune-Cookman (69-38), Longwood (98-59), Liberty (73-41), and Marshall (70-62).
“Shoutout to Norfolk State, they didn’t quit,” ODU head coach Mike Jones said afterwards. “They kept fighting. Any rivalry game, I don’t care how much you go up, there’s a lot of pride on the line. So much respect to them and we’re 4-0.”
“I’m so proud of my team, but I want to give a shout to Coach Rob Jones. His team is not healthy, but his team is going to be one heck of a team when he gets all those bodies back. You’ve got to give them credit. We got them down 20 and it looked like we were going to be able to just walk away. The pride that that program has and the pride that he has and the fight in his team, you can’t do anything but tip your hat to them for fighting all the way back.”
“When things started to go left, we settled it. It didn’t necessarily settle as quickly as I wanted it to, but ultimately, we settled it and I’ll take that,” Jones said when asked what he saw from his team.
Zacch Wiggins led ODU with 16 points after shooting 6-for-9 from the floor, 1-for-4 from beyond the arc, and 3-for-4 at the free-throw line. He grabbed six rebounds and added two assists and one steal in 33 minutes of work. Jotham Nweke tallied 10 points with seven rebounds, Zamoku Weluche-Ume finished with 10 points and six boards, and Bubu Benjamin also scored 10 points.
The Monarchs shot 26-for-52 (50%) from the field, 8-for-26 (30.8%) from long range, and 11-for-18 (61.1%) at the free-throw line. ODU had more points in the paint (34-32), off turnovers (18-16), second-chance points (10-2), and more points off the bench (19-15). The team also outrebounded the Spartans, 33-18.
On the team’s success so far, Wiggins said, “Most of it is just being tough and using our physicality. We’ve gotten stronger as a team and we talk a lot, so I think that helps too.”
On playing through all of the noise, Wiggins noted, “There was one time I had a shot-clock violation. I couldn’t hear a lot, but we stayed together throughout the game and continued to talk, so that helped us.”
Wiggins made a quick pass to Kylan Howze, who opened up the scoring with a dunk at the 19:11 mark. After NSU’s J.C. Riley Jr. answered with a layup, the Monarchs jumped ahead, 7-2 as Wiggins nailed a jumper. Weluche-Ume followed with a layup, and Howze went 1-for-2 at the free-throw line. The Spartans (2-2) caught up at 7-7 as Jordan Skyers dunked and Keon Mitchell connected from distance.
Back-to-back buckets by Howze gave the Silver and Blue an 11-7 lead with 11:10 on the clock, but NSU’s Bahsil Laster converted four free throws and Riley Jr. made two more to put the hosts in front, 13-11 at the 10:01 mark. The Monarchs regained control with a 6-0 run that was started by a Weluche-Ume driving layup. Benjamin and Wiggins added another couple of layups, and Weluche-Ume stripped away the ball and took it the rack himself for a 19-13 ODU lead.
A couple of threes from Nweke and Khoi Thurmon helped ODU widen the gap, 30-20 with 2:56 left in the opening half. With less than two minutes to go, a Nweke dunk and a Wiggins layup made it 34-22. Skyers and Adante’ Holiman then traded baskets as the Monarchs took a 36-24 lead into the locker room.
In the second half, ODU pushed its lead to 18 with seven unanswered points to make the score 48-30. Weluche-Ume started off the run with a dunk, Wiggins followed with a deep ball, and Howze got to the line with 13:51 on the clock and made both of his free throws. A little over a minute later, a Nweke layup gave the Monarchs their largest lead of the night, 52-32 at the 12:42 mark.
The Spartans responded with an 11-0 run of their own, with Dramane Camara’s stepback jumper cutting the Monarchs’ lead to 52-43 with 9:16 remaining. Wiggins earned a trip to the line with 8:48 to play and made both of his free throws before finding Scottie Hubbard for a three as ODU went up, 57-43.
Laster and Sykers put together a late 6-0 run as the hosts were back to within six, 58-52. Holiman and Jared Turner answered with a couple of three-pointers, and the Monarchs capped off the scoring with a 5-0 push in the final 39 seconds.
Turner made some key plays down the stretch, including hustling for an offensive rebound, nailing a triple, and then drawing a charge.
Asked about the play of Turner, Jones responded, “You see seniors that have the light bulb come on because they know the end of the road of their college career is not too far away, and they really start valuing everything. I think we’re starting to see that with Jared.”
Up Next
Old Dominion will be back on its home court this Saturday when the Monarchs welcome the Longwood Lancers for a 4 p.m. game at Chartway Arena.