NORFOLK, Va. - Old Dominion ran its home victory streak to 22 as the undermanned Tigers were no match for the Colonial Athletic Association leaders and bowed 78-67 to the Monarchs in the Constant Convocation Center Tuesday night.
The loss dropped the Tigers to 7-19 overall and 4-12 in the league. ODU improved to 21-7 and 13-3 in the CAA.
The Tigers dressed just seven players for the contest, leaving senior guard Josh Thornton (ankle), junior guard Jimmy Smith (illness) and junior forward Jarrel Smith (academic conflict) back on the Towson campus. The Monarchs took advantage of Towson's thin ranks and wore down the visitors to beat the Tigers for the 22nd time in the 23-game series.
Towson enjoyed early success, gaining the lead, 8-7, on Josh Brown's driving layup at the 15:51 mark. But a three-point play by Frank Hassell put the Monarchs out front again, 10-8. ODU started to run away with the game, using an 11-2 run to go up by eight. RaShawn Polk muscled his way inside for a couple of buckets and Robert Nwankwo scored in close to narrow the gap to two, 18-16 but that would be as close as the Tigers would come the rest of the way.
The Monarchs tried to wrap it up early but the Tigers hung around. ODU managed to score four points in the last 9.5 seconds of the first half to take a 38-31 lead at the break. Nick Wright's basket with seven-tenths of a second remaining was hotly disputed by Tigers' coach Pat Kennedy, resulting in a bench technical. ODU started the second half at the free throw line. Within minutes the Monarchs pulled away with a double digit lead. The Tigers never recovered.
Towson had trouble containing ODU's big guys, especially Keyon Carter and Hassell who combined with Gerald Lee for 42 points. The Monarchs outscored the Tigers 52-28 in the paint. ODU outrebounded the Tigers 39-28. Over half of the Monarchs' boards (21) were offensive..
"The points in the paint really beat us," Kennedy said. "They beat a lot of folks that way but our guys played hard and didn't quit."
Polk led the Tigers with 16 points. Brown, Nwankwo and Isaiah Philmore each scored 11 points. Nwankwo hauled in a team high six rebounds.
Towson is back in action again this Saturday afternoon when the Tigers travel to Riverdale, N.Y. to face the Manhattan Jaspers in a BracketBuster contest. Opening tip is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. The game will be carried back to Baltimore on WTMD (89.7 FM) Radio.
