NORFOLK — Mike Jones was not at a loss for words Saturday.

If anything, the Old Dominion basketball coach had a surplus to describe the ways things went wrong.

RaSheed Jones scored 23 points and Coastal Carolina took command down the stretch in a 76-74 Sun Belt Conference win over the sputtering Monarchs at Chartway Arena.

ODU (4-9, 1-1 Sun Belt) lost despite shooting 46% from the field to the Chanticleers’ 40%. It was the Monarchs’ first home loss of the season in five tries.

Coastal (7-6, 1-1) made all 10 of its free throws in the final 2:47, maintaining the lead in that span. The hosts committed four turnovers in the final 5:53, beginning with a baffling 10-second violation.

“You can call it sloppy,” Mike Jones said. “You can call it unfocused. You can call it whatever you want. The last eight minutes of the game, we did not value the basketball. We did not value every possession the way we need to.”

The loss followed Wednesday’s 77-68 victory over rival James Madison in the league opener.

Old Dominion guard KC Shaw reacts after missing a shot against Coastal Carolina. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)

ODU’s Jordan Battle, a senior guard who played for the Chanticleers last season, scored a team-high 23 points, including a banked 3-pointer from half court at the final horn.

Battle scored just one point in the first half, but a 3-pointer off an inside-out feed from forward Caelum Swanton-Rodger less than five minutes into the second got Battle engaged.

“Honestly, it got me going pretty well, I would say,” Battle said of the shot, which came after Swanton-Rodger rebounded Battle’s miss from the paint. “When I see the ball go through the rim, usually my rhythm is there. It only takes me to make one shot for me to kind of get accustomed to the game.”

KC Shaw scored 20 points for the Monarchs, who made 7 of 16 from 3-point range. Battle made 4 of 5.

Joshua Beadle scored 19 points for Coastal, which made 3 of 17 from long range.

In all, ODU committed 13 turnovers and forced just five, a nightmare combination for a roster loaded with perimeter players.

Old Dominion guard Robert Davis Jr. puts up a shot against Coastal Carolina on Saturday. Davis finished with eight points and 10 rebounds. (Kendall Warner/The Virginian-Pilot)

The game was especially physical in the closing minutes, and the Monarchs didn’t keep up.

“Every Sun Belt game’s going to be just like that,” Mike Jones said. “Every team has guys that are going to put their shoulder into you. You’ve got to hold your ground. We use the phrase ‘bow your neck.’ You’ve got to bow your neck and not give. You’ve got to catch and chest their drives. There were times where we did it and times where we didn’t do it.”

Added Swanton-Rodger: “I think down the stretch there, it got to be a lot of one-on-one ball, and our guys have just got to sit down, stop your man and rebound.”

The Chanticleers took a 64-63 lead on Beadle’s two free throws with 2:47 left and remained in control the rest of the way.

Battle drained a 3 from the left wing to close the gap to 74-71 with 4.3 seconds left, but RaSheed Jones sank both ends of a double-bonus to ice it before Battle’s inconsequential buzzer-beater.

Coastal took a 34-29 advantage into halftime after the teams swapped leads nine times. Neither led by more than seven in the first half as they combined to make 2 of 19 from 3-point range.

ODU football coach Ricky Rahne and a handful of his players, just three days after defeating South Florida in the Cure Bowl, showed off the game’s trophy at midcourt during a first-half timeout.

The Monarchs visit Maryland next Sunday for their final nonconference game of the season.

Mike Jones, a former Terrapins assistant and a native of the area, lamented letting a valuable Sun Belt chance slip away.

“We’ve got to be better than that,” Jones said. “We have to be better than that. This team has very real expectations of ourselves and very real goals ahead of us. And every one of these things matters. So dropping tonight is just going to make it harder.”

David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.

https://www.dailypress.com/2025/12/20/late-lapses-result-in-odu-mens-first-home-loss-of-season/