The unofficial online home for fans of the Old Dominion University Monarchs. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

This Saturday the LM will host the Charlotte 49ers in a match up of two teams tied for fifth with a 5-4 conference record. If the match-up wasn’t exciting enough, it’s also the traditional Hoops for the Cure game.

Charlotte’s Schedule so far…
Vs Ball St 72-66 W Record: 14-6 RPI: 57
Vs Robert Morris 94-73 W Record: 11-9 RPI: 207
@ Elon 83-90 L Record: 11-8 RPI: 79
Vs Miami (FL) 70-77 L Record: 18-4 RPI: 51

At the GSU Thanksgiving Classic (Atlanta, GA)
Vs Mercer 72-62 W Record: 14-6 RPI: 123
@ Georgia St 83-71 W Record: 8-11 RPI: 260

Vs NC Central 67-52 W Record: 3-15 RPI: 348
@ NC State 65-72 L Record: 16-6 RPI: 35
Vs Charleston 89-61 W Record: 8-11 RPI: 167
@ Davidson 99-88 W Record: 10-13 RPI: 170
@ #23 Missouri 71-88 L Record: 18-4 RPI: 24
Vs ODU 71-88 L Record: 9-12 (5-4) RPI: 174
Vs Southern Miss 80-59 W Record: 9-9 (3-5) RPI: 145
Vs La Tech 63-58 W Record: 9-9 (5-3) RPI: 162
@ Middle Tenn St 67-72 L Record: 13-7 (7-2) RPI: 76
@ UAB 57-75 L Record: 10-10 (3-6) RPI: 153
@ Marshall 64-61 W Record: 12-6 (4-5) RPI: 169
@ W Kentucky 66-77 L Record: 16-3 (8-1) RPI: 52
Vs Florida Intl 87-74 W Record: 2-18 (0-9) RPI: 318
Vs FAU 85-79 W Record: 10-9 (3-6) RPI: 135

The FAU/Charlotte match-up was pretty exciting.

FAU’s Kat Wright hit 11 3 pointers (Con USA record) but couldn’t beat four players scoring in double digits, including Grace Hunter with 22 points and 15 boards.

Starting Five
#20 Kira Gordon 6’0” Sr F 13.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.0 spg, 38.6 FG%, 36.8 3P%, 94.1 FT%, 26.2 mpg
#32 Alexis Alexander 6’1” Sr F 14.6 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 0.9 rpg, 1.0 spg, 55.6 FG%, 71.0 FT%, 27.6 mpg
#04 Laia Raventos 5’7” Fr G 7.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 4.3 apg, 1.3 spg, 45.6 FG%, 43.8 3P%, 62.5 FT%, 27.6 mpg
#21 Lefty Webster 5’8” Jr G 13.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 3.3 apg, 2.2 spg, 42.1 FG%, 42.1 3P%, 90.5 FT%, 33.7 mpg
#24 Grace Hunter 5’9” Fr G 8.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.0 apg, 46.3 FG%, 19.0 3P%, 57.9 FT%, 24.5 mpg,
Top Bench
#01 Ciara Gregory 5’7” Jr G 13.0 ppg, 1.8 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.0 spg, 38.6 FG%, 35.8 3P%, 94.1 FT%, 26.2 mpg

Basically it’s the same team that ODU played before but they have a little better chemistry and there freshmen are playing better. Alexander plays hard under the rim, Gregory likes the outside shot, they try to trap and steal the ball as a team, and Lefty will be starting this time instead of coming off the bench. They don’t have a lot of depth, so foul troubles and fatigue could be an issue for the 49ers.

One of the LM’s key to success has to be the improvement on crashing the boards. Rebounding. Take a look….

In 12 nonconference game, the ODU LM averaged 35.1 rebounds per game. Since conference play, ODU is averaging 41.0. That is a big improvement. Before the conference games started, we averaged 11.9 offensive boards per game. During Con USA play, we average 15.4 offensive boards per game. Hopefully those second chance opportunities are turning into points for ODU.

While rebounding is a team effort, Young and Ajemba have really stepped up for ODU when it comes to rebounding. Young averaged 7.4 rebounds per game before conference play started. Now she averages 9.3 boards a game. Ajemba averaged 6.8 boards before, 8.9 after.

Inside the numbers…..
……….....CHA…….ODU
PPG….....74.7………60.4
OPPG…...71.3………62.2
FG%......45.0………39.3
OFG%....40.5………39.1
3P%.......35.5………27.4
O3P%.....31.5………30.1
FT%.......74.2………61.7
RPG……...39.3………37.6
ORPG…...38.9………37.6
APG……...14.1………12.0
TPG……...15.8………16.8
SPG……...7.0………...7.4
BPG……...4.8…………3.4
Ast/TO ratio:
CHA: 0.9, ODU: 0.7

Don’t pay attention to ODU’s team stats. The team is much better than there overall stats. This is going to be a fun match-up with a large home crowd. Hopefully ODU can carry over there solid team play from last week.

Ladies looked great, again, today. Jennie with a huge game, again, AND scoring from all over the roster. Double doubles from Destinee and Ije. I thought Destinee was really developing well last year and she is continuing on her trajectory, but wow, the improvement from Ije. She is really becoming a force. GG Smith is really coming on, hitting the 3 and starting to drive the basketball, as well. Keyana Brown has had several good games from 3, as well. The team is really showing signs of the good team they could be. Jennie is still getting huge points and everyone is contributing and making it even easier for Jennie to score, because defenses can't afford to t off on her, anymore. Now, if the Men could just figure it out and take some pressure off Trey!Outside of some really questionable officiating, another great game.

Oh, yeah, 3rd straight game with free chicken for the students!

Congratulations to the Lady Monarchs! It looks like they're starting to turn things around.

So many wonderful things to talk about with game. For me, it's probably the assists that impresses me the most. We had a season high 22 assists. Now I know that we had a season high 21 assists against FIU...but it's the way the ball was distributed that impresses me.

Against FIU Simms lead the way with 8 and Bernardeco had six. Timmons had three, Kemp with two, GG and Brown with one each.

Against Charlotte everybody was getting into the passing game: Bernardeco and Simms had 5 a piece, GG and Young had 4 each, Ashley came off the bench for three, and Annika chipped in one.

In the FIU most of the assists came from two players. Against the 49ers, four players had at least four. With a team willing to be unselfish and look for the best shot possible, it makes our team stronger overall. And really exciting to watch from the sidelines.

Now we have to see if the LM can keep up the team's excellent play on the road when they don't have the energy of the Ted to feed off.