DATE: Thursday, November 13, 1997           TAG: 9711130707

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY STEVE CARLSON, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   29 lines

ODU MEN ROUTED IN THEIR FINAL EXHIBITION COURT AUTHORITY ROLLS 76-62; MONARCHS OPEN AT WRIGHT STATE ON TUESDAY.

The curtain comes up on Old Dominion's basketball season Tuesday at Wright State, but the Monarchs did not look ready for opening night in their final dress rehearsal.

ODU was whipped by Court Authority 76-62 Wednesday at the ODU field house. Court Authority came in 1-7 on its exhibition tour, including a 1-5 mark against CAA foes, which had scored an average of 76.3 points against the team made up of former college players from Virginia.

``The plan was to come out and work out the things we needed to work out before the start of the regular season,'' said ODU guard Mike Byers, whose 15 points led the Monarchs. ``We didn't execute the way we should have and we didn't play as hard as we should have and it showed.''

ODU shot 33.9 percent from the field - including 29.2 percent from 3-point range - and was outrebounded 42-33. ODU clearly missed starting center Reggie Bassette, who broke his right wrist in the Monarchs' exhibition last week against Next Level Sports.

``I'm not as upset about this game as I was after winning last week,'' ODU coach Jeff Capel said. ``That puts what I think about exhibition games in perspective. But we had trouble scoring, and we've got to get somebody on the interior who's going to produce for us. Right now we don't have that.''

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