NEW YORK -- The ODU Monarchs almost pulled off another amazing victory, coming back from a huge early deficit before finally falling to a relentless Stanford team by a score of 67-60.
Stanford blew a 21-point first-half lead but rallied behind its senior star, Chasson Randle, who played through foul trouble to make a string of big second-half shots.
The Monarchs looked tight and were ice cold for the first minutes of the first half of their semi-final game in the NIT. Playing before a huge crowd at Madison Square Garden, they fell behind 15-0 before finally scoring their first bucket against Stanford.
Trailing by as much as 21 points, the Monarchs eventually settled down and were only down by six points at the half.
Then with less than 10 minutes left in the game, ODU took their first lead, 47-46 on a sweet shot by Richard Ross.
Stanford was shooting 86% early on, while the Monarchs could get nothing to fall for them. But after the first five minutes or so, they settled down on some strong work from Richard Ross who was 7 for 7 before limping off the court and back to the locker room with about 6:30 to play after what looked like an ankle turn.
Ross eventually returned at about 3:30 left, but with Trey Freeman also noticeably limping and other players and the team in foul trouble, Stanford picked up their pace in the last few minutes and pulled out the win.
The Monarchs' starters combined for just 20 points. Freeman scored 13 of them but shot just 6 for 24. Aaron Bacote, who came in averaging 10.1 points, was scoreless. Old Dominion went 3 of 19 from beyond the arc.
Chasson Randle had 24 points to become Stanford's all-time leading scorer. Randle came in needing 11 points to break Todd Lichti's record and has 2,350 for his career.
A large number of loyal ODU fans travelled to New York City for the game and demonstrated their loyalty, chanting "ODU! ODU!" right up to the final buzzer.
