NORFOLK, Va. - The Old Dominion Monarchs pulled away late, overcoming a career-high tying 34 points from VMI's Keith Gabriel to eake out an 81-73 win Thursday night in Norfolk, Va.
VMI, coming off a 10-day layoff for exams, fell to 5-7 on the year heading into the holiday break. Old Dominion snapped a three-game skid to pull its season overall mark to 6-6.
Gabriel was the lone Keydet to tally double figures and reached the 34-point mark for the third time in his career while surpassing the 20-point plateau in a game for the 27th time. He hit 12-of-22 shots from the field including four 3-pointers.
The Monarchs placed five in double figures scoring and were led by guard Kent Bazemore with 18 points while reserve guard Trian Iliadis scored 15 points- all in the second half to spark Old Dominion.
The Monarchs held the lead for most of the first half, breaking out to an eight-point advantage early on a layup by Bazemore at the 12:52 mark to put ODU ahead, 12-4. But the Keydets stayed close and trailed by no more than six points in the half until putting together an 8-2 run to pull even at 25-25 with 5:01 left before intermission. Okoye stole a pass at midcourt and hit a driving layup to tie the game for the first time and set the tone for the remainder of regulation.
The contest saw four ties and three lead changes for the last five minutes of the half as Ron Burks gave the visitors their first lead with a layup with 1:39 left to make it 33-31. ODU's Nick Wright converted a bucket with :34 left to tie the game at 33-33 which was the halftime score .
ODU held a 32-14 advantage on the boards at halftime, but missed 11 of 21 shots from the free throw line and committed 12 turnovers to just five for the Keydets in the opening 20 minutes. Gabriel was the game's only double-digit scorer at halftime with 10 points.
The game remained tight after intermission as the lead changed four times in the first 2:58 of the second half. Gabriel converted three straight free throws at 18:16 to give the Keydets a 38-37 lead, but neither team was able to build more than a 2-point cushion for the next 10 minutes of regulation until ODU's Cooper produced a dunk at 8:14 to make it 60-56, ODU. Another Bazemore jumper made it 62-58 seconds later before the Keydets would tally five unanswered points on a Nick Gore layup and a thunderous dunk by Gabriel off a drive down the lane that drew a foul from ODU's Marquel De Lancey. Gabriel nailed the fllow-up free throw to cap the run and give VMI its final lead of the night, 63-62.
A Bazemore layup on the ensuing possession put the Monarchs off top for good with 6:23 left as the Monarchs closed out regulation with a 19-10 run.
The Keydets shot 52% from the floor in the second half and going just 39% in the first half, but were hampered in part by 12 second half turnovers aggravated by the loss of sophomore point guard Rodney Glasgow who was limited to six minutes because of a back injury sustained in the first half and foul trouble to both Okoye and D.J. Covington.
Head coach Duggar Baucom mixed up his starting lineup to try to spark his troops and inserted Hampton Roads natives Covington and Quinton Upshur along with senior forward Michael Sparks into the opening five with Burks and Gore.
The Keydets will break for nine days for the holidays before resuming action in Big South play against Presbyterian College on Saturday, December 31 at 1:00 p.m. at Cameron Hall. The Old Dominion game marked the last non-conference contest for VMI this season.
VMI Head Coach Duggar Baucom - "I was really proud of our team. I thought we competed hard and it was a one possession game the majority of the night until we had some turnovers down the stretch. Credit Old Dominion - They are as big and physical a team as we have played this year and we've played Ohio State and Pitt. We knew coming in it was going to be a tough task, but I couldn't have been more proud of how my guys competed. I just wish we could have made a few more free throws and got one or two more stops. Keith Gabriel was on all night for us. I thought we did a good job of spacing and getting to the rim. The shot total we took was low, but the ones we took were pretty good. But we were playing in foul trouble all night and that was tough."
