ODU vs Tenn Tech
ODU wins 75-59
Old Dominion (22-13) and Tennessee Tech (19-11) tipped things off here in the inaugural Vegas 16 tournament held at the beautiful Mandalay Bay Hotel. Both teams are led by terrific guards, Freeman for ODU, and Rowe for Tech. This was the key match-up in a tournament that is filled with good guard play.
Both teams came out and played man from the get go but Tech switched to a 2-3 zone after about 5 minutes to make an adjustment. Tech showed 4 or 5 defensive looks in the 1st half including some match-up zones and presses.
ODU used its size to control the boards and their guards controlled the tempo. Tech showed a ton of energy on the defensive end and used its speed to score.. After starting out on fire from the field to start, ODU eventually cooled off and Tech weathered the storm to be down by just 2 at the half.
Tennessee Tech continued to show mostly zone in the 2nd half and this helped contain ODU offense. ODU used some good defense and was able to go on a big run midway through the 2nd half by scoring in transition. The 2nd half had a great flow and ODU really pushed out the lead by scoring inside and got the win 75-59.
Trey Freeman scored 18 point and was the best player in this game in my opinion. He is a poised guard who can score off the dribble and has one of the best mid-range pull-ups Ive seen. Senior guard Aaron Bacote really played consistent throughout this one and had 16 points . BJ Stith controlled the game with his size and defense and came alive on the offensive end in the 2nd half as well. Torrance Rowe had 22 points for Tenn. Tech to lead all scorers.