Virginian-Pilot 2/10/09: ODU falls to Hofstra in men’s hoops
Cold-shooting snapped ODU’s four-game win streak
By Aaron Bracy
Special to The Virginian-Pilot
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y.
Poor shooting and bad rebounding aren’t a recipe for success, as Old Dominion learned Tuesday night.
The Monarchs shot a season-worst 27.5 percent from the field and were outrebounded by nine – the most they’ve been beaten by on the glass all year – in a 60-51 loss to Hofstra at the Mack Sports Complex.
The defeat snapped ODU’s four-game winning streak and dropped the Monarchs (15-9, 8-6 Colonial Athletic Association) into a tie for sixth place in the league with Hofstra (16-9, 8-6).
ODU is still just a half-game out of fourth place and a first-round bye in the conference tournament, but the loss makes the road to the bye rockier since Hofstra now owns the tiebreaker.
“We didn’t come out and play as hard as we could,” said Gerald Lee, who scored a game-high 20 points. “In the first half they kicked our butt on the glass. They were more aggressive. They were bumping us, jumping for the ball, diving for the loose balls. It shows how much more they wanted this win than we did.”
Hofstra took control in the opening 20 minutes, holding the cold-shooting Monarchs to a season-low 19 first-half points while hammering ODU on the boards 28-19. The Monarchs missed 27 of 34 first-half field goal attempts and trailed 28-19 at the break.
ODU continued its icy touch from the perimeter, missing 23 of 35 attempts to finish 19 for 69 for the game. And while ODU, which entered leading the CAA with a plus-6.8 rebounding edge, matched Hofstra with 20 second-half rebounds, the Monarchs lost the battle of the boards, 48-39. It was just the seventh time they’ve been outrebounded, falling to 2-5 in those games.
ODU trailed the whole way and never got closer than four after the first four minutes.
“I think our heads got a little too big because of this winning streak,” Lee said. “We thought it was going to come easy to us and it’s not the case in the CAA because every team is good and if you come playing lazy, you’re going to lose. So you better come out every game and play as hard as you can.”
ODU coach Blaine Taylor didn’t disagree.
“It was a game that had a lot of effort in it,” he said. “The team that won had just a little bit more effort.”
The Monarchs looked to get in the game when Keyon Carter, who finished with 15 points, converted a fastbreak to pull ODU within 38-34 with 14:19 left.
But the Monarchs couldn’t get anything going after that, converting just three field goals in the next 9:09 to trail 49-40 with 5:10 left.
ODU had a chance to get within three with two minutes to go, but Ben Finney missed a 3-pointer and Hofstra blocked consecutive attempts from the arc to seal the win.
