Batten leads ODU over UVA

RICHMOND, Va. (WAVY) - ODU's men's basketball team got just the holiday send off they were hoping for.  Virginia had won the last 8 games heading into the Inaugural Governor's Holiday Hoops Classic. On paper the Monarchs seemed to be over matched.

Dimitri Batten found his range, and there was no stopping him.
Three-pointer. Runner In the lane. Free throws. Another 3. Then another.

Batten scored 14 of his career-best 23 points during a 21-4 second-half run Saturday night and Old Dominion snapped a nine-game losing streak by stunning Virginia 63-61 in the Governor's Holiday Hoops Classic.

"My teammates kept saying, `Shoot it. Do what you do,"' Batten said after making 8 of 13 shots, including 5 of 9 3- pointers. "I was hitting the shots, and coach said `Keep going back to the hot hand."'

Even with Batten's scoring, the Monarchs (2-10) let it come down to the wire.

Virginia (9-3) thought it tied the game when Tevin Jones made a shot from the right corner with the Cavaliers trailing 62-59 and 3 seconds left, but while the Virginia bench erupted, the officials signaled that it was a 2-point shot.

The Cavaliers' eight-game winning streak ended, and the Monarchs became the third team from the Colonial Athletic Association to beat them. Virginia also lost at George Mason and at home against Delaware before starting its winning streak.

But what looked like an enormous mismatch on paper proved anything but, much to the delight of the Monarchs.

"I told somebody before the game, `This is going to be like the Miracle on Ice if we get `er done,' and we got `er done," Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor said.

After Jones' shot was ruled a 2-pointer, making it 62-61, Donte Hill made a free throw at the other end with 3.1 seconds to go and when the Cavaliers pushed the ball upcourt, it glanced off Joe Harris' hands and the upset was complete.

The final play looked like much of the second half for Virginia.

"I hope they weren't feeling themselves like, `Hey, we've won however many in a row and all that,"' Virginia coach Tony Bennett said. "I would hope that's not the case, but if it was, this will certainly bring you back to reality."

Old Dominion trailed 34-24 when Aaron Bacote, who finished with 17 points, scored to spark the 21-4 burst. Then Batten took over. He hit a 3-pointer, a basket in the lane and another 3-pointer, tying the game at 34 with 12:19 to play and riling up the sizeable Monarchs contingent.

Paul Jesperson's 3-pointer gave the Cavaliers the lead back, but Hill hit a pair of free throws for Old Dominion, DeShawn Painter followed a Virginia free throw with a basket inside for the Monarchs and Batten added two more 3-pointers, giving Old Dominion a 44-38 lead with 8:20 to play.

The lead got as high as nine points, at 50-41, before Virginia slowly crept back, finally getting to 57-54 on Evan Nolte's 3-pointer with 33.6 seconds left. A free throw by Painter made it 58-54, and Nolte's three-point play off a rebound made it a one-point game. But Old Dominion made 5 of 6 free throws in the final 21 seconds and held on when the shot by Jones was ruled a 2-pointer. The officials never even checked video.

Virginia led 25-20 at the break and opened the second half on a 9-4 run. When Harris' 3-pointer fell with 14:24 left to make it 34-24, it seemed likely that the Cavaliers had made adjustments at halftime and were poised to pull away.

Old Dominion led 12-9 early before Virginia used a 14-2 run to go ahead 23-14.