NORFOLK — With little to gain from playing against Division III competition, Old Dominion didn’t want to lose anything Thursday.
If nothing else, the Monarchs eventually found their shooting stroke.
KC Shaw scored 22 points and ODU overcame a lackluster night from the perimeter in a wire-to-wire 93-53 victory over Randolph in the home opener at Chartway Arena.
The Monarchs (1-1) made 5 of 25 from 3-point range, including a first half in which they shot 12 blanks, and pulled away for their most lopsided win since an 82-33 victory over Texas El Paso in February 2018.
Shaw, a senior transfer guard from Maryland Eastern Shore, led four ODU players in double figures. LJ Thomas scored 16, Jordan Battle scored 15 and Caelum Swanton-Rodger added 10 for the Monarchs, who shot 52% to Randolph’s 27%.
ODU, which got points from 12 players, won the rebounding battle 55-30 and finally found viability behind the arc in the second half.
“I know the numbers and the stat sheet don’t say it, but we’re a really good shooting team,” second-year Monarchs coach Mike Jones said. “Like, really good. Like, I think one of the best that you’ll see in college basketball this year.
“Just keep shooting the ball. I don’t think there was anything to learn from it other than, ‘Hey, our coach has our back and he wants us to shoot because this is the way we play.’ ”
Trey Miller, a freshman forward out of Green Run High in Virginia Beach, led the WildCats (0-0) with 16 points.
Though the game counted toward the Monarchs’ record, it was technically an exhibition for Randolph.
A 13-1 run that began midway through the second half gave ODU a 78-45 lead and removed all doubt with seven minutes to go. The WildCats went without a field goal for 4 1/2 minutes during the surge.
ODU’s KC Shaw drives to the hoop during Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025, night’s basketball game against Randolph in Norfolk. (Stephen M. Katz / The Virginian-Pilot)
The Monarchs, meanwhile, were heating up.
Thomas, a senior transfer point guard from Austin Peay whose career began at North Carolina State, pointed to his team’s outside shooting in the first half as the main separator.
“If we hit half of those, it would’ve been a different score,” Thomas said. “So that’s what I think it came down to.”
The Monarchs opened the season Monday with an 87-72 loss at Miami of Ohio in which they held an eight-point halftime lead. No such comeback was in the cards Thursday.
ODU took a 40-26 lead, its biggest of the first half, on Shaw’s midrange jumper in the closing seconds.
The Monarchs shot 28.8% from 3-point range last season, going 15-20 overall, but they’re expected to have a more accurate cadre of snipers.
ODU missed all 12 of its 3-point tries in the first half Thursday, most of them uncontested.
“You can almost hear the crowd groan every time,” Jones said. “Everybody in the arena knew that that’s a good shot.
“I would’ve been upset had we started passing up open looks because we hadn’t made one. That is going to be what wins a lot of basketball games for us.”
Randolph, a Lynchburg-based private school that competes in the Division III Old Dominion Athletic Conference, has nine players from the Seven Cities on its roster.
Not to be confused with Randolph-Macon College, an Ashland school that plays in the same league, Randolph boasts novelist Pearl S. Buck among its alumnae.
Crosstown rival Norfolk State visits the Monarchs on Tuesday.
David Hall, david.hall@pilotonline.com.
https://www.pilotonline.com/2025/11/07/odu-finds-outside-shot-rolls-past-d-iii-randolph/
