C-USA Notebook: Relentless defense has Old Dominion riding high

It’s been more than a month since Old Dominion lost a game. After dropping an 82-75 decision at VCU on Dec. 2, the Monarchs have overwhelmed most of their opponents with one of the most unrelenting defenses in the country. And when they haven’t, they’ve been resilient and tough in close games.

ODU was 2-0 on its first C-USA road trip of the season, but things could have gone the other way easily. The Monarchs needed overtime to get past Rice, 82-75, and barely slipped past North Texas, 63-60.

In the last game, the Monarchs led for 39:44 of the game and seemed comfortably ahead — 58-48 — with 5:41 left. But the Mean Green pulled within one with 56 seconds to play. Trey Porter’s layup and a couple of free throws from 6-5 junior guard B.J. Stith sealed the deal.

After the game, veteran ODU coach Jeff Jones talked about his team’s toughness and seemed resigned to the fact the Monarchs have a target on their backs.

“Hats off to North Texas, they played a whale of a game,” Jones told the media. “I thought we played well — we had to play well. … We faced a lot of adversity and never caved. We are still sitting atop the Conference USA standings, and will continue to get everyone’s best shot.”

Old Dominion’s defense has been a weapon. The Monarchs are 11th in Division I in scoring defense (61.7 ppg) entering Wednesday night’s games and 16th in field-goal percentage defense (38.3).

Ken Pomeroy’s advanced statistics provide more specific insight into the Monarchs’ defense. ODU is sixth in the nation in two-point percentage defense, largely on the strength of being No. 15 in blocked-shot percentage (15.9). Porter, a 6-10 junior forward, is tied for second in C-USA in blocked shots at 2.0 per game, and 6-7 senior forward Brandan Stith is tied for No. 7 (1.4 bpg).

Porter has stepped up after the offseason dismissal of 6-7 forward Zoran Talley, who later resurfaced at Iowa State. A year ago, Porter averaged 6.6 points, 4.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. This year, his averages are 12.7, 6.0 and 2.0. He’s also shooting 60 percent from the field.

Hilltoppers’ Darius Thompson a man of his word

When 6-4 graduate transfer guard Darius Thompson arrived at Western Kentucky after previous stops at Tennessee and Virginia, he noticed in the Hilltoppers’ record book that only one player in program history, Orlando Mendez-Valez, had recorded a triple-double.

He vowed to become the second.

Sixteen games into his first — and only — season as a Hilltopper, Thompson was true to his word. Scoring 33 points, handing out 10 assists and grabbing 10 rebounds, Thompson led WKU to a 112-87 rout of Marshall at the Thundering Herd’s Cam Henderson Center. Not since a 113-79 win over Belmont in 1994 had the Hilltoppers scored close to that many points.

For his efforts, Thompson earned C-USA’s Player of the Week award.

Thompson nearly matched his previous career high in scoring — 21 points against Austin Peay in December — in the first half, notching 19. Late in the game, Thompson’s teammates knew how close he was to a triple-double — he had also racked up eight boards and eight assists — and kept yelling out to him “two and two.”

Knowing exactly what he needed, Thompson got his 10^th assist with a lob to 6-7 senior forward Justin Johnson with 3:03 to play, and his 10^th rebound at the 2:54 mark.

Western Kentucky guard Darius Thompson is just the second Hilltopper ever to post a triple-double. (Credit: Steve Roberts/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Around the rim

Middle Tennessee (11-4, 3-0): The Blue Raiders earned a special distinction with a 61-57 victory at FAU last Saturday. The win was their seventh true road win of the season, tops in the nation at the time. Middle had plenty of opportunities to pile up road wins, having not played at home since Dec. 9, a span of seven games, but only the last three were at an opponent’s home court. The Blue Raiders have gotten off to a 3-0 start in C-USA play by winning at UAB, FIU and FAU by an average of four points. Earlier this season, Middle won at Murray State, Tennessee State, FGCU and Vanderbilt.

Marshall (11-5, 2-1): It just wasn’t the Thundering Herd’s night when it hosted Western Kentucky on Jan. 6. Marshall missed its first eight shots, but worse, lost 6-9 junior forward Ajdin Penava, the nation’s leading shot blocker, to a leg injury after four minutes. He didn’t return, but incredibly had already blocked five shots, surpassing his season average of 4.8 per game.

Without that rim protection, the game became a beatdown: Western Kentucky — which won 112-87 and ended the Herd’s 11-game home-court winning streak — scored 70 points in the paint to just 20 for Marshall, outrebounded the Herd 53-26 and had a 20-2 advantage in second-chance points.

Marshall had gotten off to a solid start in C-USA play, beating Southern Miss and Louisiana Tech at home. But the Herd had a seven-day break between games and clearly got caught flat against the Hilltoppers. And losing Penava was a killer.

“We’re thin inside anyway, and [Penava’s injury] makes it tough for us,” Marshall coach Dan D’Antoni said after the game. “Especially against a team that has those two loads [Justin Johnson and Dwight Coleby] inside.”

UAB (11-5, 2-1): After losing their league opener at home to Middle Tennessee, the Blazers embarked on a road swing to Florida that couldn’t have gone much better. In wins against FAU (75-44) and FIU (75-64), they never trailed and shot a combined 53 percent from the floor. “It’s kind of a rarity to play consistently as well as we did for two games down here,” UAB coach Robert Ehsan told the media after the FIU game. “I think as a team we played two 40-minute games. Maybe in the last 8-10 minutes, we got a little sloppy. But, I think, other than that, we were really good.”

North Texas (9-8, 2-2): The Mean Green continued to improve under first-year coach Grant McCasland, opening league play with a pair of road victories for the first time since 1991. Leading the way was 6-3 sophomore guard Roosevelt Smart, who averaged 25.5 points and 5.5 rebounds in wins over UTEP and UTSA to earn C-USA Player of the Week honors on Jan. 2. He scored 29 points on 3-of-5 3-point shooting at UTEP. North Texas didn’t fare quite as well when it returned home, though it was once again competitive, losing by a basket to Charlotte and by three points to league-leader Old Dominion.

Southern Miss (9-8, 2-2): Kevin Holland went off against UTSA last Saturday, tying a school record in the process. Holland, a 6-1 junior guard, made eight 3-pointers in as many attempts on his way to a career- and game-high 23 points in a 93-83 victory. Holland’s 100-percent success ratio from behind the arc tied the record set by Marcus Crowell, who was 10 of 10 against Louisiana in January 1990.

UTSA (9-8, 2-2): It’s safe to say Jhivvan Jackson, aka “The Puerto Rican Iverson,” has been en fuego lately. On Jan. 8, the 6-foot guard was awarded his third consecutive C-USA Freshman of the Week honor, this time after averaging 25.5 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.0 assists in two games. That included a 30-point outing (in 30 minutes) against Southern Miss. Jackson has won C-USA’s freshman award four times this season, and fellow UTSA freshman Keaton Wallace, a 6-3 guard, has won it three times, giving the Roadrunners seven of the nine handed out so far.

FIU (7-9, 1-2): The Panthers had a rough week. First, they let defending league champion Middle Tennessee escape with a win in overtime. Then, their mastery over UAB — they swept the Blazers last season — came to an end in a 75-64 loss. Both games were at home. UAB, which has one of the most physical front lines in the league, blasted FIU on the boards, 41-29, and that led to a 13-5 second-chance point advantage.

Charlotte (5-9, 1-2): The 49ers were looking to put together some momentum under the direction of interim head coach Houston Fancher but fell flat at Rice, losing 73-64 on Saturday to the Owls, who were 3-13, 0-3 heading into the game. The 49ers turned the ball over 19 times, yet still managed to attempt six more shots from the field and four more 3-pointers than Rice. But the real problem was Charlotte shot just 39 percent from the floor and 23 percent from 3.

Louisiana Tech (10-7, 1-3): The Bulldogs have been snakebitten this season. They’ve lost seven of their 17 games by four points or less, including — during a surprising 0-3 start in C-USA games — by one point to Western Kentucky and to UTSA by a basket. La Tech finally broke through with a win in conference play, and it made sure the game wasn’t close. Playing without starters DaQuan Bracey and Joniah White, the Bulldogs beat UTEP, 97-88, on Jan. 6. Bracey, a 5-11 sophomore guard, and last season’s C-USA Freshman of the Year, was sidelined by a back injury, and White, a 7-1 junior center, was attending the funeral of a family member.

UTEP (6-10, 1-3): Odds are if a team averages 81.5 points over a two-game stretch, that team would win at least once — and maybe even twice. But in the Miners’ first C-USA road trip of the season, they surrendered 85 points to Southern Miss and 97 to Louisiana Tech and lost both games. “I thought we competed better tonight overall [as opposed to the loss at Southern Miss],” interim coach Phil Johnson said after the La Tech game last Saturday. “But we’ve got to get back to what we were doing two weeks ago and defending. They just drove by us, and we were fouling. So that’s a real issue for us right now.”

Rice (4-13, 1-3): The Owls put together a solid week, losing in overtime to co-league leader Old Dominion and then bouncing back two days later to beat Charlotte with a closing kick. Rice outscored the 49ers 15-6 in the final four minutes. “I want to put an exclamation point on how proud I am of our guys with our response from Thursday night,” Rice coach Scott Pera said after the game. “In order to win these games, you have to produce when games are tight and make the big plays. Tonight, we made the plays in the last four minutes. We made winning plays. Overall, I’m just really, really proud of the group. I’m proud of their approach. I’m proud of their habits, and I’m glad they got a win. They deserve it.”

FAU (6-9, 0-3): FAU got off to a poor start in C-USA play because it couldn’t generate any offense (52.7 ppg). In those three losses to FIU, UAB and Middle Tennessee — the latter two were home games — the Owls shot 34.5 percent from the field and 16.7 percent from 3-point range.

Looking up the court

Western Kentucky at Old Dominion, Jan. 11: In a battle of teams unbeaten in league play, the Hilltoppers will try to put an end to the Monarchs’ seven-game winning streak.

Louisiana Tech at Middle Tennessee, Jan. 11: The third team that’s off to a 3-0 start in C-USA games, MTSU, finally returns home after more than a month playing on the road or at neutral sites. The Blue Raiders’ last played a home game on Dec. 9.

Marshall at Old Dominion, Jan. 13: This will be a classic battle of a high-scoring team against one of the stingiest defenses in the country.

(Top photo of Old Dominion guard Ahmad Caver grabbing the ball by  Leslie Plaza Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)