COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA MEN’S TOURNAMENT : Old Dominion Triples Its Pleasure in Stunner

After 55 minutes of basketball, Old Dominion didn’t celebrate wildly after the biggest victory in school history.

When the 14th-seeded Monarchs’ epic 89-81 triple-overtime victory over third-seeded and 10th-ranked Villanova ended Friday night, there was no jumping and hugging. No rolling on the floor. Almost no emotion at all.

“This is not a knock against Villanova, but you were expecting them to win this game, but we really expected to win,” Old Dominion guard Mike Jones said. “Each overtime was another opportunity. When it ended we made a conscious effort to keep things low-key. We have another game Sunday and no one is going to expect us to win that game either.”

The Monarchs (21-11), champions of the Colonial Athletic Association, will play Tulsa in the second round. Their trip there was a long one, and the man who made sure it happened was Petey Sessoms.

The 6-foot-7 senior forward, player of the year in the CAA, scored 35 points, seven in the third overtime, and was also responsible for holding Kerry Kittles, the Big East player of the year, to 22 points on nine-for-20 shooting while committing nine turnovers. Villanova finished the season 25-8.

The game was one of the seven longest in NCAA tournament history--two went four overtimes--and the last triple-overtime game was Villanova’s 86-82 victory over Northeastern in 1982.

“To be honest, until I looked at the stat sheet I didn’t know it was three overtimes,” Villanova Coach Steve Lappas said. “I knew it was more than one but I didn’t know how many more. We got two good looks and just didn’t knock them down.”

Lappas was referring to the Wildcats’ chances at winning the game with the last shots of regulation and the second overtime.

“I thought the rebounding would be the key, but there were a lot of others in a game like this,” said first-year Old Dominion Coach Jeff Capel. “We made every big play we had to on both ends of the court at the end of the game and each of the overtimes.”

“You couldn’t be tired,” said Kittles, who played all 55 minutes. “It’s the NCAA tournament, the position we all dream about being in. We were going to give all we had no matter how long it lasted.”