Monarchs go from elation to heartbreak
Long shot at the buzzer comes fraction too late, and season ends in OT
The best thing left to be said for Old Dominion’s season might be that it’s finally over.
But not before one final cruel dose of pain.
Coleton Benson scored a careerhigh 28 points Tuesday night, and 11th-seeded Texas State overcame a 12-point second-half deficit in a 92-83 overtime victory over 14th-seeded Old Dominion in the first round of the Sun Belt Conference Tournament in Pensacola, Florida.
The loss ended the Monarchs’ disjointed season at 7-25. Texas State (15-17) advanced to face sixth-seeded Southern Miss on Thursday.
The contest also featured one of the themes that haunted ODU throughout the season. The Monarchs were competitive until they hit a late-game lull and suddenly weren’t.
The Bobcats, who had struggled from the free-throw line throughout regulation, outscored ODU 18-9 in overtime, making all 12 of their free throws.
To add salt to the wound, Chaunce Jenkins’ 60-foot shot at the horn to end regulation went in and sparked a brief Monarchs celebration, but a review showed that it left his hands about a tenth of a second too late.
“Obviously, a very disappointing loss,” acting ODU head coach Kieran Donohue said. “I thought a great effort by our players. If the game was half a second longer, maybe we have a very, very different result.”
Ty Williams scored a careerhigh 36 points for the Monarchs, picking up the slack for Jenkins, a second-team all-conference selection who was held to six points on 2-of-5 shooting.
ODU shot 45% to the Bobcats’ 44%, but the Monarchs went cold at the worst possible time. The overtime period included a
field-goal drought of more than three minutes, and Texas State closed with a 14-7 run to put it away.
The Monarchs led 46-34 with 15 ½ minutes left in regulation before Texas State mounted a methodical comeback.
ODU took a 38-28 halftime lead after Bryce Baker’s 3-pointer from the left corner with four seconds to go. The Monarchs led by as many as 11 in the half after a 12-3 run that began with just less than nine minutes left.
“We found a way,” Bobcats coach
Terrence Johnson said. “I thought those early jitters really took over, and we were doing some things that were not us.”
And so ended one of the most forgettable and eventful seasons in recent ODU history.
On Dec. 20, 11th-year head coach Jeff Jones had a heart attack while the team was in Hawaii for a tournament. Jones planned to step away temporarily to recover, but news that he would have to resume treatment for prostate cancer ended his season weeks later, putting Donohue in charge the rest of the way.
Two key players, forward Dericko Williams and guard
Vasean Allette, were booted from the team for disciplinary reasons during the middle part of the season, forcing a pair of schematic adjustments on the fly.
On Feb. 26, Jones announced his retirement. Four days later, while the team was on the road, the school announced it had hired Maryland assistant Mike Jones as his replacement.
Meanwhile, the losses continued to pile up, though many of them, like Tuesday’s, were heartbreakers.
The Monarchs spent the entire season trying to turn the proverbial corner, and another obstacle fell in front of them before the tournament. Donohue, a career assistant, said a handful of players were given IV treatment Tuesday after a flu bug swept through the team. Some played through illness.
“I think it’s just a testament to our guys,” Donohue said. “They played with a lot of pride. They played with a lot of heart. They gave everything they had. That’s all we asked them to do. Obviously, we wish the result had been different, but I can’t fault the effort.”
The Monarchs finished with their worst record since going 5-25 in 2012-13.
It’s no wonder, then, that when Jenkins hit the apparent game-winner with the score tied at 74 at the end of regulation, ODU’s players were allowed a fleeting — and ultimately false — moment of elation in a season that has offered few of them.
Donohue was left to calm them down and try to get them refocused for overtime.
“Obviously, if I could do that over again, I’d try to find a different way,” he said. “That’s a very, very challenging situation for our guys. It was a lot of emotion that was released right there, thinking that we had won the game. A lot of emotion that’s been pent up for a long time.”