Monarchs return to winning ways in 69-57 victory at Ted

NORFOLK

Dribble, pivot, pass. Dribble, pivot, pass. That's been Old Dominion's mantra the past couple days, after committing 25 turnovers Saturday against Virginia Commonwealth.

"Leave your feet" is not part of the instruction, and yet, that's what the Monarchs did several times with about eight minutes left in their 69-57 win over Northeastern Monday night.

"I think we had a series of about three plays in a row where we jumped off a cliff with nowhere to go," coach Blaine Taylor said.

Taylor, famously conservative with his time outs, called one after Donte Hill got airborne and threw the ball away, leading to a Northeastern layup with 7:33 left. On the first play after the time out, Marquel De Lancey whistled another errant pass that was stolen by Alwayne Bigby.

Encouraged, the Huskies turned up their pressure defense and got within two points. After a Trian Iliadis free throw, De Lancey redeemed himself by hitting a corner 3-pointer to push the lead to six. Hill did his part, too, with a block and backdoor layup to put the game out of reach at 60-49 with 1:36 left.

After committing 11 first-half turnovers, ODU had just six in the second. Other than that brief stretch, they took care of the ball.

"It's just a mental thing, really," De Lancey said. "We know what to do but sometimes we just get going so fast that we just lose our thought. A time out brings us back down."

Composed when they needed to be, the Monarchs (12-9) toughed out a win that leaves them 7-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association at the season's halfway point. It also gave ODU a sweep of the Huskies (9-10, 5-4).

Playing VCU and Northeastern in consecutive games is a bit like going from a sauna to an ice bath. The Rams seek to turn up the heat.

The Huskies?

"Playing Northeastern is a lot like playing Virginia," Taylor said. "They play the game so close to their vests that if you get ahead by six or eight it's a pretty good lead and if you get behind by six or eight it's a pretty big deficit."

The Huskies are one of the conference's more physical and deliberate teams. Coming off a loss to Drexel that snapped a four-game winning streak, they played with abandon.

It's become a given that ODU will get opponents' best efforts on the boards. Its reputation for rebounding precedes it, and teams box out with ferocity. Northeastern held its own, grabbing 34 rebounds to ODU's 40.

For the Monarchs, the number of turnovers were more worrisome.

"We just had to make a concentrated effort to make our passes on the ground," Hill said.

When that happened, ODU had answers for every Huskie run. De Lancey's corner 3 was his only attempt of the game, but it gave the Monarchs valuable breathing room.

"Coach has been telling me to shoot when I'm open," he said. "Usually I shot fake and try to go the basket or something. So I just listened to him."

Iliadis had hit a 3-pointer earlier in response to one from Northeastern's Quincy Ford. He led ODU with 18 points.

Chris Cooper had 15 points, 10 rebounds, and the pass of the night, a thread-the-needle feed to Hill, who was cutting backdoor, with 1:41 left.

"We made eye contact, and he found me," Hill said.

Hill had 12 points and three steals and helped key a defense that limited Huskies guards Jonathan Lee and Joel Smith to 15 points combined, 12 below their average.

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