Another dominating defensive performance for Old Dominion Women’s Basketball as they locked down the Tigers 57-38. The Monarchs improved to 4-0 on the season, their first 4-0 start since the 2012-2013 season.
It was the annual Education Day game at Chartway arena, and if you were in attendance or watching on ESPN+, the 2,500+ Norfolk Public School students made their presence known. Brenda Fontana was asked about the crowd noise postgame “On the offensive and defensive end, the energy was way higher. Sometimes they had a turnover and it was not caused by us, but [the crowd] would still cheer for us, and that feels good. Energy is always good for us.”
Check out the smiles on these faces! (And imagine the din inside @ChartwayArena!) NPS fourth graders had a winning time at the @ODUWBB game against Texas Southern today! Oh, and the ODU women won, too! pic.twitter.com/M7AKs5Il91
— NorfolkPublicSchools (@NPSchools_VA) November 17, 2023
These late first quarter pushes have become a common theme for Old Dominion this season and seem to carry them well into the second quarter. Friday was no exception as the Monarchs thoroughly dominated the second quarter 15-2. Yes, you read that correctly, Texas Southern managed just two points against a tough ODU defense.
Coming out of halftime, the Monarchs didn’t let up. Clark knocked down a three off a pass from En’Dya Buford with 7:43 to go in the third. The triple capped a 6-2 run to start the half and put this game on ice.
ODU shot 35.1% from the field (20-for-57) including 22.7% from three (5-for-22). The Monarchs held a 46-38 edge on the boards and both teams tallied 11 steals.
Despite the dominating performance, Old Dominion will have plenty to continue working on as they committed 21 turnovers and actually had fewer possessions than Texas Southern. This is still a team finding its rhythm after adding 10 new players. But as we’ve heard from other ODU coaches, it’s much more fun to fix things after a win than after a loss.
Buford led the way with 10 points, 5 boards, 3 steals and 2 assists. Fontana just missed out on a double-double with 8 points and 11 rebounds. Both Buford and Fontana logged just 20 minutes of action to reach those totals.
Clark and Simone Cunningham both finished with 7 points and 5 rebounds; Mimi McCollister tallied 8 points.
In all, 13 Monarchs saw game action with 11 finding the scoring column. So far this season Head Coach DeLisha Milton-Jones has been able to find quality minutes up and down the bench which will pay dividends later in the season.
ODU takes a break for Thanksgiving week but will return to action at Chartway Arena on Tuesday, November 28th for a 6:30pm matchup with Elon.