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The Monarchs can feel like royalty as March comes to an end.
Old Dominion will bring a trophy back to Virginia after defeating the Oakland Grizzlies 68-67 in the Vegas 16 final.
While it's not the biggest win for a Conference USA team this season (we'll gladly bestow that honor upon the Blue Raiders of MTSU.
Trey Freeman brought an end to his college career with a W. He scored 24 points and grabbed 6 reboundss in his final collegiate contest. Aaron Bacote and Brandan Stith added 12 and 14 points specifically.
Congrats Trey Freeman @ODUMBB on winning @VegasSixteen and the MVP if the tourney! #BowlGame4Basketball pic.twitter.com/E7Mh6axWkm
— Debbie Antonelli (@debbieantonelli) March 31, 2016
The Monarchs did the brunt of their work around the bucket, as they outrebounded the Grizzles 40-27 and relied on shots within the arc to do their damage (ODU shot just 8 3-pointers compared to Oakland's 23 attempts).
A 14-0 run from the Grizzlies, when ODU seemed firmly in control, put the two teams in a 44-44 tie with a little under 12 minutes to go in the game.
ODU reclaimed that lead and fended off Oakland the rest of the way.
Kahlil Felder went with a fight. He nailed a 3-point bucket with two seconds remaining to bring the game within one point, but it was not to send him off into the sunset with a championship. The possibility of him skipping senior year to enter the NBA draft is a possibility. Whether that happens is another story. Should he come back, he could have a shot at the NCAA assist record.
Kay Felder finished his junior year w/ 324 assists, giving him a 3-yr total of 788. He will need 289 as a senior to break NCAA assist record
— Dan Fenner (@DanFenner) March 31, 2016
ODU finished the year 25-13 and with nice wins over Tennessee Tech and UC Santa Barbara before tonight. So there's something for the Monarch youngsters to build off of next season.