Monarchs complete sweep of Raiders in Norfolk

Saturday, February 27

Norfolk, VA

6:00 PM

Middle Tennessee

5-15, 3-11

Old Dominion

14-6, 10-4

Old Dominion

2/27/2021 8:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Season Stats (PDF)

By: @MTAthletics

NORFOLK, Va. – Old Dominion stifled their challengers early and often once again Saturday night, holding the visiting Blue Raiders to just 60 points on 20 made field goals in a 73-60 win at Chartway Arena.

Middle Tennessee (5-15, 3-11) allowed a 50 percent field goal clip for the seventh time this season as the Monarchs (14-6, 10-4) shot 51.6 percent (32 of 62) to MT's 33.3 percent (20 of 60).

"We just didn't guard in man defense well enough tonight," Head Coach Nick McDevitt said. "We gave up too many easy baskets. We did a better job of taking care of the basketball compared to last night, but at the end of the day their shooting percentages were just too much as we failed to eliminate the easy ones."

DeAndre Dishman got the scoring started for the Blue Raiders while a 3-pointer by sharpshooter Jalen Jordan helped grow the early advantage to 9-4.

Just as it did at the first media timeout on Friday, the Monarch defense tightened up after the first media break to spark a 9-0 run and re-claim the lead.

While the Blue Raiders were protecting the ball much better than the night before, the offense continued to scuffle through a stretch in which it hit just 2 of 13 field goal attempts over a stretch of 9-plus minutes.

Middle Tennessee finished the first half shooting just 32.1 percent (9 for 28) from the field and 9.1 percent (1 for 11) from beyond the arc to find itself trailing 36-22 going into the break.

With a 14-point halftime deficit hanging over their heads for the second straight night, the Raiders came out of the locker room firing as Jordan Davis, Jalen Jordan and Jo'Vontae Millner-Criss each knocked down a trifecta in the first two minutes of the half.

Old Dominion would quickly open up a 21-point lead, however, as MT hit a scoring drought of nearly six minutes leading up to the under-12 media timeout.

The Blue Raiders looked to gain a bit of momentum in the form of Elias King when the sophomore got a quick six points on three trips down the floor, but for every MT score there was an ODU answer as the Monarchs refused to allow their challengers to get any closer than the final deficit of 13.

Jordan led three Raiders in double digits with 12 points while adding four rebounds and four assists. Millner-Criss tallied 11 with three second half 3-pointers while Tyler Millin added 10 points.

Middle Tennessee closes out the regular season Thursday and Friday at Florida Atlantic, with both games tipping off at 5:00 p.m. CT.