NORFOLK — The bell rang Friday for Old Dominion’s next man up.

Zacch Wiggins answered it, and he was far from alone.

Wiggins scored 18 points off the bench and ODU tied a season high with 10 3-point baskets in an 88-56 nonconference win over Morgan State before a sparse crowd at Chartway Arena.

The victory, which snapped a two-game losing streak, followed a 99-69 loss at Xavier and a 96-73 defeat at George Washington.

The Monarchs (3-3) shot 48% from the field and made 10 of 27 3-pointers. With points from nine players, they held a 46-19 advantage in bench scoring.

It’s what second-year coach Mike Jones wants to see.

“As we are kind of rounding into our identity here, I’m really hoping that that becomes something that we’re known for — just the versatility,” Jones said. “If you’re a team game-planning for us, you cannot say, ‘Hey, if you stop him, you can stop them.’ We have so many guys that can contribute.”

Playing without injured guard KC Shaw, ODU got 14 points from Jared Turner, 12 from Jordan Battle and 11 from LJ Thomas.

The Monarchs led by as many as 34 points in the closing seconds after Wiggins, a freshman guard from Greensboro, North Carolina, threw down a tomahawk dunk in transition.

Shaw, a senior guard who leads ODU with 14.2 points per game, twisted his right ankle during Thursday’s practice and is day to day.

The 6-foot-4 Wiggins did his damage on 6-of-10 shooting and made half of his four 3-point tries.

“I was just playing with the flow of the game, and then my teammates saw me when I was open,” Wiggins said. “I’m just playing confident and playing to the best of my ability.

“I knew KC went down, so I knew I had to step up.”

Elijah Davis led the Bears (1-5) with 12 points. Morgan State, which plays in the MEAC with Norfolk State, was held to 36% shooting and made just 3 of 18 from 3-point range.

ODU, behind 50% shooting from the floor, took a 43-26 lead into halftime.

The Monarchs scored 14 straight points as part of a 19-2 run to create separation in what had been a seesaw game, taking a 35-16 lead with five minutes left in the first half.

The victory was ODU’s most lopsided over a Division I school since an 83-44 win over Maryland Eastern Shore on Nov. 28, 2017.

Before the game, longtime Monarchs athletic director Jim Jarrett was honored with a memorial video and a moment of silence from the announced crowd of 4,844. Jarrett, a pioneer in women’s sports and the department’s leader for 40 years, died last week at 88.

ODU’s reserves wore black shirts with Jarrett’s name on them.

Jones, a former assistant at Maryland and Virginia Tech, lamented his team’s poor rebounding late in the game. He was also disgruntled with the alarming number of backdoor layups the Bears managed to perpetrate — despite preparing his players to defend against them.

The nitpicking, though, could wait.

“But I’m happy, obviously, with the result,” Jones said. “For the way we played the last two games, this was a much-needed win, a much-needed collective togetherness and connected team that we played like tonight. It’s something we needed to have.”

The Monarchs next play at home Dec. 17 against James Madison.

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/11/21/all-around-effort-leads-odu-past-morgan-state/