By Zach Smith. BOONE, N.C. — Coming off a dominant victory over Georgia State in their last outing, App State looked to build momentum with a win over Old Dominion on Feb. 22. The Mountaineers were unable to do that, falling to the Monarchs, 81-62.
App State saw three players log double-digit points. Junior Emily Carver netted a team-high 14 points, while senior Faith Alston and sophomore Alexis Black each scored 10. Rylan Moffitt and Mariah Frazier each grabbed eight rebounds, while Alston dished out six assists.
Old Dominion was led by a 17-point, eight-rebound performance from Brenda Fontana. En’Dya Buford also scored 17, while Simone Cunningham and Mimi McCollister scored 10 apiece to round out the Monarch scoring effort. Cunningham tacked on a team-best 10 rebounds to secure a double-double.
App State scored the game’s first five points before ODU took their first lead of the contest with an 8-0 run of their own. The Mountaineers countered with back-to-back three-pointers to jump back in front — but that proved to be their final lead of the evening. The Monarchs out-scored App State by eight through the rest of the first quarter, and took a five-point advantage into the second.
The second period remained a close contest. The Mountaineers never fell behind by more than six points in the frame, bringing the game within a point on two separate occasions. Late in the half, App State had a chance to tie the contest as En’Dya Buford was called for a tech after committing a shooting foul. Behind by four, The Mountaineers knocked down three of their four shots from the stripe, securing a one-point deficit at the halftime buzzer.
Things fell apart quickly for App State out of the locker room. ODU scored 21 of the first 24 points of the second half, turning the game on its head early in the third quarter. The Mountaineers hit just two shots from the floor in the stanza, and ODU out-scored the home side by 16 in that time.
Things didn’t get much better in the final ten minutes to play. For the second quarter in a row, App State hit just two shots from the field. Old Dominion defeated the Mountaineers by 19, securing their 19th victory on the 2023-24 campaign.
App State head coach Angel Elderkin praised the visitors for their performance, postgame.
“I say a lot ‘chance favors the aggressor,’ and I thought Old Dominion was super aggressive,” Elderkin said. “Hats off to them in terms of the job that they did defensively. Our offense has been on fire lately, and they really put that fire out tonight.”
Elderkin went on to talk about what changed out of the locker room at the start of the second half.
“Their three-point shooting ability,” Elderkin said. “They’re a team that averages five made threes [per game] and they hit us for 10. In the first quarter they came out hot. We felt good in the second quarter because we held them without one. Everything that could go wrong in the third quarter went wrong.”
“Our offense has been on fire lately, and they really put that fire out tonight”
App State saw shooting struggles for the first time in recent contests. Elderkin spoke on the cause of her team’s scoring difficulty against Old Dominion’s conference-best defense.
“I think it was a lot to do with their athleticism,” Elderkin said. “I don’t think we got as many clean, open shots, I think they’re there on the catch. They do a good job of defending the three-point line and they do a good job of just guarding the basketball.”
As a team, App State shot at just a 27 percent mark, compared to ODU’s impressive 46 percent clip. The Monarchs outrebounded the Mountaineers, 54-35, and dished out 17 assists, topping App State’s eight.
With the victory, Old Dominion are winners of four of their last five games. The Monarchs hold sole possession of fourth place in the Sun Belt, a position that would earn them a double-bye in the conference tournament. ODU travels to Atlanta Feb. 24 to face Georgia State for their last road test of the regular season. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m., and the game can be streamed on ESPN+.
App State’s loss drops them to a 7-8 record in conference play. The Mountaineers remain in position to skip the first round of the Sun Belt tournament, and need just one win or a Georgia Southern loss to secure that position. App State returns to play Feb. 24 against James Madison for Senior Day. The game is slated to tipoff at 2 p.m., and can be streamed on ESPN+.
