THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702230333
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 74 lines
Saturday was a night of firsts for Old Dominion.
By Monday, the Monarchs hope to finish with a share of first place in the Colonial Athletic Association.
ODU leveled George Mason 85-62 in front of 4,513 fans at the ODU field house. The victory, coupled with UNC Wilmington's loss at East Carolina, put the Monarchs in second place, one-half game behind the Seahawks. UNC Wilmington finished 10-6, which ODU can match if it beats James Madison in its regular-season finale Monday at Scope.
The Monarchs (18-10) were tied for fifth place in the conference just nine days ago before winning three in a row.
``The only thing we wanted to do was put ourselves in a position where we could play well these last four home games,'' Odell Hodge said. ``I never did rule out the possibility we could do it (finish first), but as a team we were trying to work on playing better and just getting ready for the tournament.''
Hodge tipped in a Skipper Youngblood miss for his 2,000th career point Saturday, becoming the first ODU player and just the third in CAA history to combine for 2,000 points and 1,000 rebounds.
But that was not Hodge's only first. His opening basket was a fast-break slam dunk, a rarity for the 6-foot-9 senior. He said it was his first dunk in a couple of years.
``I can dunk, but I don't feel I have to,'' said Hodge, who finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds, both game highs. ``Dunking is for showboating, and I don't have to showboat.''
In the second half, Hodge completed the trifecta of firsts. He was beyond the 3-point arc when he attempted an alley-oop to guard Mike Byers.
``When he first let it go it looked like it would be the perfect pass for me to catch and dunk,'' Byers said. ``But I went up to get it and it went in.''
It was the first 3-pointer of Hodge's career. That one put ODU on top 70-45. But a series of treys helped the Monarchs pull away from George Mason early in the second half when the outcome was still in doubt.
ODU led 32-22 after an ugly first half.
George Mason (9-16, 3-12) missed its first 10 shots, and eventually ODU opened up a 23-7 lead before making just 2 of 15 field goals the remainder of the half.
The Patriots shot 23.5 percent from the field while ODU made 32.3 percent of its first-half shots.
ODU found its touch at the beginning of the second half. Hodge muscled in a basket underneath and Mark Poag followed that with a 3-pointer.
They repeated the sequence, and then a few minutes later Poag made his third trey of the half and Byers followed that with a 3-pointer to cap a 19-7 run that gave ODU a 51-29 lead with 15:13 remaining.
``If you can break a team down in the first five minutes of the second half, it's kind of hard for them from then on,'' Byers said.
Byers finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and three steals, while Poag had his second-consecutive hot shooting night, scoring 15 points with 4-of-7 accuracy from 3-point range.
Brion Dunlap handed out a career-high 11 assists.
George Mason, losers of eight in a row, has dropped its last five games in Norfolk by an average of 24.2 points. Nate Langley, the CAA's leading scorer with a 22.7 average, made just 2 of 14 shots and finished with a season-low nine points.
The worst ODU can finish in the conference standings, should it lose Monday to JMU, is tied for second, but it's feasible that could be a four-way tie.
If UNC Wilmington and the Monarchs tie, because they split their regular-season series the tournament's top seed will be determined based on how they did against the third place team and on down the line until the tie is broken.
With the standings so convoluted the scenarios are endless - and probably meaningless, given the way CAA race has been the picture of parity.
``I don't think being the No. 1 seed would give us a boost or confidence, but I think the fact that we finished the season on a high note winning four straight games would mean much more to us than being the No. 1 seed,'' ODU coach Jeff Capel said.