Monarchs, but not their uniforms, host Northeastern

NORFOLK

The Virginia Commonwealth Rams apparently weren't the only ones stealing from Old Dominion on Saturday night.

The Monarchs returned late after a 61-48 loss in Richmond, in which the Rams had 15 steals. They found their home uniforms had been swiped from the men's basketball locker room at the Constant Center, coach Blaine Taylor said Sunday.

"They went through our uniform bag," Taylor said. "They left all the huge sizes, and took the kind of more average sizes, and took the bag."

Some basketball shoes also were taken. Taylor said the equipment was locked away before the Monarchs left for Richmond on Friday afternoon. The Constant Center hosted a mixed martial arts event Saturday night. Arena officials were still on hand around 1 a.m. Sunday when ODU's team bus arrived, said Joe Imbriaco, director of events/operations at the Constant Center.

"They brought it to our attention that some stuff was missing, and a police report was filed," Imbriaco said.

ODU will wear its road blue uniforms when it hosts Northeastern tonight. Taylor said jokingly that might not be a bad thing. The Monarchs are 4-1 on the road in the CAA.

Saturday night's loss was the first in the league away from home. ODU (11-9, 6-2) committed 25 turnovers, its most in at least six years. VCU (15-5, 6-2) converted those miscues into 26 points.

The game got away during a second-half stretch in which turnovers and VCU 3-pointers snowballed. A raucous, sell-out crowd at the Siegel Center contributed to ODU's unraveling.

"I'm a little bit surprised we didn't handle it better," Taylor said. "A lot of it was a little bit of frustration and a little bit of credit to the crowd."

ODU had won four straight. For the Monarchs, who are in the midst of a string of five games in 11 days, the good news is that they don't have time to dwell on the loss.

They were back at practice at 10 a.m. Sunday to prepare for Northeastern, a team ODU defeated 69-59 on Dec. 3 in Boston.

The Huskies (9-9, 5-3) have won five of seven conference games since then - and had a four-game win streak snapped Saturday by Drexel.

Tonight's game marks the halfway point in the CAA season. Taylor said if someone had told him before the season his team would be 6-2, with four road wins, approaching the halfway mark, he'd have taken it.

"I would have said, 'Boy, somehow, some way we're right in the middle of this thing with a chance."