Old Dominion women's basketball used a late 8-0 run in the fourth quarter, snapping a 52-all tie and taking a 61-54 Sun Belt Conference victory over visiting Georgia Southern on Tuesday evening in Norfolk.
The Monarchs (21-7, 12-5 SBC) picked up their sixth win out of their last seven games with the victory, while the Eagles (14-16, 4-13) dropped their third straight contest.
Georgia Southern made five of its first six shots from the floor to take an early 11-4 lead on the Monarchs. A layup in transition by Simone James at the end of the first quarter pushed the Eagles' lead to 10, 21-10, heading into the second.
Old Dominion held Georgia Southern scoreless for a five minute and 45 second stretch during the second quarter to climb in front, 24-23, with 2:57 left in the half, but the Eagles hit four free throws in the final two and a half minutes to take a 27-26 lead into the break.
The third quarter saw four ties and six lead changes between the teams, with the Monarchs hitting a three at the buzzer to tie the score at 42-all. The fourth quarter was just as even, as Shy Booker collected an offensive rebound and put a layup in to tie the score at 52-all with 3:43 remaining in the contest.
From that point, however, the Eagles went 0-for-4 from the floor with two turnovers as Old Dominion embarked on its 8-0 run covering three minutes to clinch the win.
Simone James led the Eagles with 18 points, while Kayla Thomas chipped in 10 points to go with nine rebounds. Eden Johnson nearly had a double-double with nine points and 10 rebounds to go with four assists.
Eagle of the Game
James played a season-high 37 minutes of action, hitting 8-of-18 shots from the floor for her 18 points, the most she's scored in a Sun Belt contest this season. She added four rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot on the night.
Stat of the Game
Old Dominion forced 26 turnovers on the evening and turned those into 20 points, while the Eagles forced 12 turnovers, but were only able to turn those into five points.
Quotables
Head Coach Anita Howard on the effort against the Monarchs
"We let this one slip away. We had some people step up, like Simone, who led us in the scoring column. Kayla doing what she has been and Diamond did a great job as well. Without Terren Ward and our point guard Ja'nya Love-Hill, we had to push things through CeCe and Kanija. But our biggest bullet was our turnovers. 26 turnovers against a team like that, you can't win a game like that. We rebounded like we wanted to, but the turnovers hurt us down the stretch. Hopefully we can piece this thing together as we get ready for Pensacola. Again, I hate that we let this one slip away, but I'm pleased with how we played short-handed."
Next Up
The Eagles conclude the 2023-24 regular season on Friday evening, visiting first-place Marshall in a 6 p.m. contest in Huntington, W. Va.
