JONESBORO, Ark. (Courtesy of ODU Athletics) — Homestanding Arkansas State blistered the nets hitting 18 3-pointers and used a 9-0 second half run to pull away from Old Dominion 90-75 on Saturday at First National Bank Arena in Sun Belt Conference action.
“There are certainly positives to take on the offensive side today with Chaunce (Jenkins) and Vasean (Allette) having big games scoring,” said ODU Interim Head Coach Kieran Donohue. “They got some separation around the 10-minute mark of the first half, where I thought our effort dipped. We got back into it in the second, but they shot the ball extremely well and we didn’t chase them off the line as much as we spoke about.”
Arkansas State opened on a 7-2 run capped by Izaiyah Nelson layup at the 17:39 mark. ODU methodically worked back into the contest taking its first lead at 13-11 following a 3-ball from R.J. Blakney off a feed from Allette with 14:53 left.
Jason Wade hit a layup at the 13:42 mark to take a 15-14 lead and Jenkins followed with a pull up jumper to even the contest at 17-all with 12:57 left. Arkansas State responded with a 25-4 run to take a 42-21 lead on a Julian Lual 3-pointer with 5:40 left.
ODU went on a run trimming the deficit to 45-39 as Jenkins capped the 18-3 burst with a 3-ball with 66 seconds left. Caleb Fields beat the halftime buzzer with a 3-pointer to give the hosts a 48-39 advantage at the break.
The second half saw ODU open on a 12-5 run to trail 53-51 after an Allette jumper with 15:54 left. The Red Wolves answered with eight straight points as Fields hit a driving layup to push the lead back to double digits at 61-51 with 14:34 left.
Bryce Baker connected with a jumper in the paint to bring ODU to 68-61 at the 10-minute mark, but the hosts ripped off the next nine points to push the lead back to 16 on a free throw by Nelson with 5:59 left at 77-61.
The Monarchs had one last run as Leeroy Odiahi had a stickback with 3:41 on the clock as ODU trailed 79-70, but that was as close as they could get.
Allette had 28 points, while Jenkins added a career-best 27 to lead ODU and Wade added a season-high matching eight rebounds. Arkansas State had four in double figures paced by Dyondre Dominguez with 16 points and 11 rebounds.
The Monarchs now head to Atlanta, Georgia on Thursday night to face Georgia State at 7:00 p.m.