NORFOLK, Va. — NORFOLK, VA. (WTKR) — On a snowy and chilly night, Old Dominion got off to a hot start in front of raucous crowd on Wednesday.
The shooting, however, chilled off quickly and the Monarchs could never get momentum back.
James Madison used a 15-4 run in the final six minutes of the first half to take the lead and go on to knock off ODU 74-60 at Chartway Arena.
"We went down eight or nine pretty quickly there. That's where we dug ourselves in a little bit of a hole, but we can handle that," said ODU head coach Mike Jones. "Coming out in the second half, going toe-to-toe for about 90 seconds, two minutes, and then we just kind of lost our wits. Next thing you know and eight point lead is a double figure lead and now you've got to scramble."
The Monarchs went into the locker room down 37-29 and got the firs three points of the second half to cut the deficit down to five, but the Dukes quickly punched back with a 10-0 run.
As JMU found ways to extend the lead, the silver and blue were never able to find a response. ODU went 18-for-55 from the field and made just three of its 19 three-pointers, all by Robert Davis Jr.
"We've got to play and execute an offense that we are willing to share, we're willing to play for one another," Jones said. "When we were winning on the road and we were showing how good we can be, the assist numbers were way up. I think we average in wins almost 15 assists, in loses we average less than 10."
ODU tallied just four assists in the defeat to JMU.
"Coach has been talking to us ever since the first loss coming back home. I think we had four assists in that game," Davis Jr. said. "From a player standpoint and coach's standpoint, we have to look in the mirror and see where we can improve."
The sophomore sharpshooting guard scored 23 points to lead all scorers while Jaden Johnson chipped in 14 points and Sean Durugordon posted a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
It's now the third straight loss for ODU after coming back home with a 4-1 record in Sun Belt play, tied for the top spot in the conference.
"We've gotten so much better and we come back in here and we got four home games in a row and we haven't done anything with it," Jones said. "And it's killing me. It's killing me."
"We come so close. We see the potential," Davis Jr. said. "It's like we do everything right and then it's just like we fall back and just pick and choose."
JMU's AJ Smith led the way with 21 points for the visitors, which shot 54 percent from the field.
Now at 8-12 overall and 4-4 in league play, ODU closes out its home stand with Coastal Carolina on Saturday night at 7:00 PM before head on the road for five of its next six contests.
After building up plenty of promise through the start of the Sun Belt schedule, the challenge now for the silver and blue is to find a way to respond from a cold spell that expanded through three games.
"We have to be motivated by winning. We have to be motivated by playing the best basketball we can play together," Jones said. "When we do that, I think we got a really good chance here. Until we do that, we don't have a shot."
"We've got to embrace it, got to have the courage to embrace it," Davis Jr. said. "We need to come together, look in the mirror as a team, then go elsewhere and look in the mirror individually and be honest with ourselves."
