ODU stuns Hoyas again

WASHINGTON

Outside, a record snowfall accumulated: 12, 14, 16 inches.

Inside, Old Dominion's lead over Georgetown did, too: 14, 16, 18 points.

The white stuff will eventually melt, but though the Hoyas brought the heat, the Monarchs' lead never completely did. For the second time in four seasons, ODU beat a nationally ranked Georgetown team at its cozy campus gym, outplaying the No. 11 Hoyas from start to finish in a 61-57 win at McDonough Arena Saturday night.

ODU (7-4) finally got the signature win it had been craving, after several tries.

The Monarchs did so by knocking Georgetown (8-1) on its heels early and withstanding every run thereafter. Each time the Hoyas threatened, ODU had an answer.

Many of them came in the form of 3-pointers from Ben Finney and Trian Iliadis, each of whom went 3 of 4 from behind the line, giving the Monarchs some badly needed perimeter shooting to complement to their scoring inside.

Finney, who had been in a self-described shooting funk, led ODU with 13 points. Iliadis had 11.

Forward Frank Hassell added a timely 10, including a tip-in with 41 seconds left that squelched Georgetown's final run.

The Hoyas had scored nine straight to cut an 11-point lead to two. A mostly student crowd of 2,400 was in full roar. Hassell quieted them by tipping in a Keyon Carter miss.

"It was a reaction play," he said.

The teams traded turnovers before Georgetown went down on a pair of missed 3-pointers by Austin Freeman. Hassell squeezed the final rebound.

There were no more than a couple dozen ODU fans on hand to witness it, on a day in which the region's transportation system was virtually paralyzed.

"The story tonight," ODU coach Blaine Taylor said an hour before tip-off, "is that we're playing."

After the tip, the story became the way the Monarchs were playing: forcing Georgetown turnovers, battling the Hoyas to a standstill on the boards, and running their offense with efficiency.

"We played with a lot of energy," Taylor said. "We established early that we were going to scrap."

ODU continued to do so, stretching its margin to 18 early in the second half, then bracing for the onslaught the Monarchs knew Georgetown would bring.

"I don't think we would have gotten this one without the lumps we took early in the season," Carter said. "It was learning experience, and tonight we showed composure and poise."

ODU watched the tape of its 2006 win over Georgetown on the bus trip up Friday.

On Saturday, the Monarchs hunkered down in a nearby hotel as the region was pounded by the biggest December snowstorm on record.

Finney said he felt good at Saturday afternoon's shootaround. The feeling continued after he made his first 3-pointer.

"Once I hit that, I felt like I was hot," he said.

So was Iliadis, who played in place of Marsharee Neely and logged 21 minutes.

The Monarchs made only one other trey, but it was a timely one, a corner jumper by Darius James that gave ODU an 11-point lead with 4:24 left.

"We had just enough plays in us," Taylor said.

For the Monarchs, it felt like vindication, after they failed to make key plays down the stretch in frustrating losses to Missouri, Mississippi State, Richmond and Dayton.

Taylor said he understands that most people will regard the win as an upset. He said he doesn't see it that way.

"I think we've showed over the years that this sort of thing is in the cards, if we do the right things," he said.

Ed Miller, (757) 446-2372, ed.miller@pilotonline.com