FRISCO, TX (WTKR)- Old Dominion's Conference USA Tournament stay ended on Wednesday night really before it got started.
UTEP jumped out to a 7-0 lead to set the tone and the Monarchs never led, falling to the Miners, 74-64, at the Ford Center at the Star. The loss ends ODU's season at 13-19.
Old Dominion found itself in a 22-9 hole at the 8:46 mark of the first half,with UTEP holding a 34-21 lead at halftime. The Miners would swell the lead to 19 points in the second half, before some late Monarch buckets made the score a bit more respectable when the final horn sounded.
ODU won the rebounding battle, 41-36, but stumbled out of the gate in shooting, connecting on just 24 percent of its first half shot attempts.
C.J. Keyser paced the Monarchs with 20 points, while Austin Trice added 12. Kalu Ezikpe tallied nine points and 10 rebounds in the losing effort. Souley Boum, who led Conference USA in scoring during the regular season, scored a game-high 21 points to lead four Miners in double figures.
This marks the second time this season that Old Dominion has fallen to UTEP. Back on January 15, the Miners overcame a late seven point deficit to send the game to overtime and handed the Monarchs a 78-70 defeat.
ODU falls to 0-3 in Conference USA Tournament games since winning the event in 2019.
