Women’s basketball’s season sweep of ODU reverses history

Jim Swing
Assistant Sports Editor

For decades, the Old Dominion women’s basketball team terrorized VCU in CAA conference play.

This season, however, the Rams made it a point not to allow the Monarchs to dominate the annual two-game series for the 16th straight season.

After edging ODU in a hard-fought 63-60 victory in Norfolk on Jan. 20, VCU gave itself a little more breathing room Thursday night in a 74-53 rout of the Monarchs at the Siegel Center that captured the season sweep for the Rams for the first time since the 1972-73 season.

Following the game, the smile on eighth-year head coach Beth Cunningham’s face displayed her excitement.

“They’ve had our number for a lot of years, so it’s nice finally to be on the other side; they have such a history,” Cunningham said. “Wendy (Larry) has done such a great job, year in and year out, and they’re always at the top of the conference, so to be able to get a big win on the road when we won at their place, then turnaround and get this win today, every game is so critical – it feels good.”

The season sweep comes as just the third and fourth wins over ODU during Cunningham’s tenure at VCU, two of which Cunningham and her team find truly invigorating due to the rough trends of recent history.

As they have all season, the Rams leaned on junior leading scorer Courtney Hurt who torched the Monarchs for 46 total points over the course of the series.

Hurt – a player in which sour ODU head coach Wendy Larry called out for flopping after the game – posted her NCAA-leading 20th double-double Thursday night with 27 points and 19 rebounds.

“I’m just going out and trying to win a game,” Hurt said. “Going into the game, I knew I had to rebound because they’re big inside and getting them in foul trouble; my shot wasn’t falling as well as I’d liked, but I tried getting to the rim and get their post players in foul trouble.”

Throughout the series with the third-place Monarch team, VCU depended largely on its defense, which came through in a staggering fashion and forced a total of 40 ODU turnovers over the course of two games.

After pressuring the Monarchs into committing 19 turnovers at the Ted Constant Convocation Center nearly a month earlier, the Rams fed off of an energizing Siegel Center crowd that helped make things difficult on the offensive end for ODU, which gave up the ball on 21 separate occasions.

“It’s great to have their support, and I think that’s what helped us as far as momentum,” Hurt said, referring to the crowd. “It was a great feeling – something I want to get used to definitely, but it’s good that we went out there and played hard, so hopefully they’ll come back.”

The Conyers, Ga. native – who has provided constant leadership for VCU all season – said she was aware of the dominance ODU had displayed against the Rams program in the past, which added a special touch to the pair of wins.

“When I came here I knew they had a history of winning,” Hurt said. “It’s just like any other game – a wins a win, a loss is a loss, but it’s always a great feeling to beat a very talented and organized team.”