NORFOLK — Old Dominion was almost out of ideas for getting its season back on track.

It turns out an alarm clock — both figuratively and literally — was just what the Monarchs needed.

Caelum Swanton-Rodger scored 14 points Saturday, and ODU turned in perhaps its best performance of a rocky season in a 78-72 nonconference victory over Ohio at Chartway Arena.

Still reeling from Wednesday’s loss to lowly Louisiana Monroe, the Monarchs (8-17) shot 45% from the floor, made 6 of 13 from 3-point range and led for the final 8:40 to snap a two-game losing streak and earn their first home victory of 2026.

“I’m extremely proud of our team for playing as close to a complete game as we’ve had this season,” said second-year coach Mike Jones, whose team has been plagued by inconsistency.

“I am happy that we get to have some success through all the fighting that we’ve been doing.”

The morning after the loss to ULM, statistically one of the nation’s worst teams, Jones and his staff were at the team’s practice facility at 5 a.m. Practice began at 6. A second practice began at 2 p.m.

The idea, hatched by assistant coach James Robinson as Jones held Wednesday’s somber postgame press conference, pushed the desired buttons.

“It’s a wakeup call, having to get up at 5 in the morning to get to the gym,” said Swanton-Rodger, a 7-foot Canadian senior. “It gives us flashbacks to the summer. I mean, it worked. We were firing on all cylinders today. So as long as the guys get the message that what happened on Wednesday is, frankly, unacceptable, it’s effective.”

On Saturday, presumably better-rested ODU made 5 of 6 free throws in the final 88 seconds to keep the Bobcats (13-12) at bay.

When Ohio’s Jackson Paveletzke missed a 3 from the left wing with 21 seconds left and the Monarchs’ KC Shaw corralled the rebound, the announced crowd of 6,657 could celebrate.

The game was the second and final installment in the MAC-SBC Challenge, a scheduling alliance between the Mid-American Conference and the Sun Belt.

Ajay Sheldon scored 19 points for the Bobcats, who lost despite 47% shooting. Shaw led ODU with 17.

Monarchs point guard LJ Thomas scored 13 points, all in the second half as his team stepped somewhat out of character and finished off an opponent.

“I wasn’t proud of how I was playing,” Thomas said.

“I just got my mind right and locked in, and I wanted to win this game because I know we needed it.”

The game was the Monarchs’ final nonconference affair of the season. Only home games against Marshall, Georgia State and Louisiana and visits to Southern Miss, Marshall and Georgia State stand between ODU and the Sun Belt Tournament, which opens March 3 in Pensacola, Florida.

The Monarchs won three games in last year’s tournament. A similar run might be the only way to salvage what has been, by nearly any measure, a season of underachievement for a team that returned nine players.

“We’re doing this to ourselves, so we shouldn’t get credit for being resilient,” Jones said. “But I do think there is an impressive component to the fact that things have not gone the way any of us expected it to, and we still fight.”

Old Dominion’s Jordan Battle (23) dribbles inside the 3-point arc as Ohio’s Ajay Sheldon (0) watches during the Monarchs’ MAC-SBC Challenge victory Saturday night at Chartway Arena in Norfolk. COURTESY/BRUCE BUTLER/ODU

ODU took a 40-35 lead into halftime after trailing by as many as 10 points in the early going.

Ohio, with help from Jalen Breath’s personal 6-0 layup spree, sprinted to a 16-6 lead before the Monarchs went on a 10-2 run. Jones had a flashback to Wednesday, when ULM snapped a 13-game winning streak on his team’s home floor.

After that night’s press conference, Jones walked into the coaches’ lounge, where his assistants had been kicking around ideas.

Jones said he was opposed to the 6 a.m. practice at first, but, exasperated, he was soon convinced.

“I don’t know if it necessarily sent and they received a message, but I knew I wasn’t going to be sleeping anyway, so … let’s get to the gym.

“We’ve tried a little bit of everything else, so why not?”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

https://www.dailypress.com/2026/02/07/after-wakeup-call-odu-men-hold-off-ohio/