THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, February 27, 1996 TAG: 9602270413
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
Mark Poag was home with the flu, and for the first 13 minutes of Monday might's basketball game, Old Dominion looked sick without him.
Defense proved to be the right medicine for the Monarchs, who blew out East Carolina 81-57 in their regular-season finale. ODU trailed 21-12 in the early going but outscored the Pirates 69-36 the rest of the way.
``It took us a while to get started,'' said ODU freshman guard Mike Byers, who scored 15 points, mostly on slashing moves to the basket. ``When the outside shot is not falling, you have to turn to something else.''
ODU overwhelmed the Pirates on the boards 44-33, including 21 offensive rebounds that produced 24 second-chance points. The Monarchs also turned up the defensive intensity, matching a season high with 13 steals.
ECU made nine of its final 36 field goal tries in the game's final 27 minutes and missed 15 consecutive shots in the second half. The Pirates went from the 12:58 mark of the second half until 2:21 remained without a field goal.
``You got a couple of good looks around the basket and you're hoping one of them is going to fall,'' ECU coach Joe Dooley said.
``I thought it was one of our best defensive efforts of the year,'' ODU coach Jeff Capel said. ``We hadn't really been competing at a high level defensively the last few games.
``Those last eight minutes of the first half, we really did a good job defensively, and we were able to build on that defensive effort and intensity in the second half.''
For ODU (17-12, 12-4 Colonial Athletic Association), the most lopsided win of the season came at a good time. The Monarchs were coming off an abysmal performance in a loss Saturday at American. ODU, which finished second in the league, faces No. 7 seed James Madison on Saturday in the CAA tournament quarterfinals at the Richmond Coliseum.
``We had to get over that loss; we had to put it behind us,'' said senior Mario Mullen, who scored six points in his final home game. ``This was a momentum builder going into the tournament.''
Once the Monarchs got some momentum Monday, they got rolling like a semi going downhill. ODU ripped off a 9-0 run in 1:08 to tie the game at 21, had another 8-0 spurt moments later and closed out the half outscoring the Pirates 21-6 in the final 7:03 for a 33-27 halftime lead.
ODU built the bulge to 51-40 with 12:58 to play, then crafted a 12-0 run in less than three minutes to put the Pirates away. The Monarchs' biggest lead was 75-45 with 5:06 remaining.
The Pirates (16-10, 8-8) beat ODU last month in Greenville and looked like a CAA top-rung team. But ECU faded down the stretch, losing three straight and six of its last seven league games. They will be the tournament's fifth seed and will play American on Saturday.
With sharpshooter Poag out, East Carolina had success early with a zone defense. But when the Monarchs got rolling, the Pirates were forced to abandon the zone and ODU's Joe Bunn (20 points, 11 rebounds) and Odell Hodge (17 points, 11 rebounds) had their way inside against man-to-man defense. Freshman forward Cal Bowdler also had a season-high eight points to go along with five rebounds and two blocked shots.
But it might have been Byers who was the key for the Monarchs. He had his best game in a month, with 15 points, four rebounds, five assists and two steals.
``I thought Mike Byers played a very good all-around game,'' Capel said. ``We really needed that with us not having Mark Poag.'' ILLUSTRATION: JIM WALKER
The Virginian-Pilot
ODU's Joe Bunn works through the Pirates' Morris Grooms. Bunn had 20
points and 11 rebounds Monday night.
by CNB