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

Monday Night the ODU women's basketball team will take on the NC State Wolfpack. For the season, NC State is 4-0 after playing four home games. Head coach Wes Moore enters his fifth year at the helm of NC State. Last year he won the ACC Head Coach of the year award. His team had upsets over #2 ND, #6 Florida St, #12 Duke, and #9 Louisville. He is one of the few coaches to advance a team into postseason play at the D-1, D-2, and D-3 level.

NC State 4-0. All games played at home
Jacksonville W 66-44 RPI: 144
Davidson W 73-49 RPI: 72
UNC Asheville W 87-55 RPI: 311
South Alabama W 71-50 RPI: 101

Wolfpack starting Five.
#01 Aislinn Konig 5'9" G So 7.5 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 4.0 apg, 1.5 tpg, 30.8 FG%, 26.1 3P%, 24.0 mpg
#02 Kaila Ealey 5'8" G R-So 5.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 4.25 apg, 1.3 tpg, 32.0 FG%, 08.3 3P%, 33.3 FT%, 29.0 mpg
#04 Lucky Rudd 5'9" G So 11.3 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.0 tpg, 51.6 FG%, 42.9 3P%, 57.1 Ft%, 28.3 mpg
#05 Chelsea Nelson 6'2" F Sr 14.3 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.5 apg, 2.25 tpg, 2.0 spg, 57.9 FG%, 0.00 3P%, 56.5 Ft%, 20.3 mpg
#32 Akela Maize 6'5" C Sr 12.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 0.8 rpg, 2.5 tpg, 1.3 bpg, 58.1 Fg%, 63.5 FT%, 18.8 mpg
Key Bench
#11 Kiara Leslie 6'0" G R-JR 10.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.3 apg, 2.3 tpg, 2.0 spg, 51.7 FG%, 44.4 3P%, 70.0 FT%, 20.3 mpg
#02 Kaila Ealey 5'8" G R-SO 5.3 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 4.3 apg, 1.3 tpg, 32.0 FG%, 08.3 3P%, 33.3 Ft%, 29.0 mpg
#03 Kai Crutchfield 5'8" G Fr 5.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 1.3 apg, 1.0 tpg, 31.8 FG%, 46.2 3P%, 0.00 FT%, 19.0 mpg

The Wolfpack's roster is filled with lots of four and five star recruits. It's a very talented team. On offense the 6'5" Maize and 6'2" Nelson spend all their time under the basket in the paint. Together they shoot a robust 58% under the basket, so our defense will be tested. Konig, Rudd, and Cruthchfield are the team's three point shooters. When Leslie comes off the bench, they have four playes who average double digit scoring. This team will difficult to defend because they have so many weapons.

Inside the Numbers
.............................NCST.....ODU (RPI: 338)
PPG.......................73.8......58.7
FG%.......................44.0......40.9
3P%.......................28.6......32.3
3PPG.....................6.5........6.7
FT%......................55.4.......56.5
FTPG.....................12.8.......8.7
RPG......................47.8.......34.0
OPG.....................17.8.......12.0
DPG.....................30.0........22.0
APG.....................16.3........10.3
TPG......................14.8........18.3
SPG......................8.8.........5.3
BPG.....................6.3.........1.0
Asst/TO ratio.......1.1.........0.6

So NC State on Monday and Duke on Wednesday. The hits just keep on coming. Look I know that this a rebuilding seson for ODU, but one player to keep your eye on is freshman Victoria Morris. She will go down in history as the first player Nikki McCray-Penson signed, but she could be a lot more than that. If you watch her during warm up, you see that she is a three point shooter. This season out of 37 shots total, she has taken 25 from beyond the arc. She has started all three games and currently leads the Monarchs in scoring at 12.7 ppg.

When you think of all time ODU three point shooters, the top two names on the list are of course TJ Jordan and Aubrey Eblin. Eblin didn't play a lot in her freshman year and Jordan had two starts in her freshman year. Already Morris has made 8 threes through three games. Jordan had 47 threes in her freshman year. At the end of the season, don't be surprised if Morris breaks into the top 10 all time scoring for freshmen players. She has the opportunity and is off to a fast start.

Good to see you back View. I was starting to worry about you and was going to start a thread asking if anyone knew what was up. You have always done a great job breaking down the games. It's going to be a tough one this year, but what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger, right?

I know it’s going to be a long year, but I hope the fans hang in there. I also hope Coach Nikki can recruit some height. Guards are great, especially one who can shoot the three, but a couple of 6-3 or 6-4 centers/forwards would be great. Maybe we can out recruit UConn for a couple off good ones.

She gets a 2 year pass in my book- as long as her players go to class and stay out of trouble.

ODU came back from down 14 to tie it at the half.

Outscored 18-3 in the third quarter. 64-45 NC State with 5:36 left

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Definitely did some good things tonight. Free throw shooting was not one of them. Abysmal free throw shooting. Something south of 50%. The third quarter was brutal, after an explosive second quarter, coming back from 14 down to take a brief lead and ending the half tied. Hit 11 threes. Kelly Loftus can really hit the 3 and Vicki Morris, a true Freshman, can, too. Only 8 turnovers against a team creating 18 per game. NC State was just so big, no one under 5'8", and several over 6', we just couldn't get much off inside. After a slow start, the team played with good energy and fought hard. Late in the game, you could see our ladies were just gassed and there just isn't any depth. NC State was just too big and too athletic to keep up. The bright spot I have seen so far is that in each game, after getting down big, the team has come back and gotten the game really close or even taken a lead, even if they have fallen away at the end each time. They are continuing to battle. They could fold the tent when they get so far down. I hope they can sustain it through the season and some of their conference games will fall their way. Looks like Nikki is getting buy in from the players. This is the best I've seen them play. I did see Jeff Jones, Bryant Stith, and a number of the Men's players in the stands. The guys were really animated cheering them on during that second quarter run and even got pretty loud giving the Refs the business after a bad call.

They did indeed show signs of what they are capable of tonight. The 3rd quarter did us in. I believed this team will get better. They have heart and just need more experience playing together. The consistency will come, and come conference time, they will be ready.

It’s easy to see that coach McCray is building for the future and I feel confident that she will be successful. This season is definitely an indictment on how “bare” our former coach left the shelves.


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(11-21-2017 08:28 AM)Big Bluezilla Wrote:  It’s easy to see that coach McCray is building for the future and I feel confident that she will be successful. This season is definitely an indictment on how “bare” our former coach left the shelves.


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She will be successful, she will not shoot herself in the "foot."