Wiggins Scores Career-High 25 As ODU Defeats Western Michigan
NORFOLK, Va. – Zacch Wiggins scored 19 of his 25 points in the second half as Old Dominion men’s basketball opened its 2026-27 season with a 61-49 win over Western Michigan on Monday night at Chartway Arena.
The game was the first-ever meeting between the two programs in what marked the first round of this season’s MAC-Sun Belt Challenge.
“That’s a really good basketball team we just played,” said ODU head coach Mike Jones following the win. “A tough team, a physical team. We just beat a really good basketball team, and I’m very proud of my team.”
It was a new career high for Wiggins, who is in his second season as a Monarch. His previous career best was an 18-point performance versus Morgan State on Nov. 21 last year. The Greensboro, North Carolina native shot 60% (9-for-15) from the floor and went 87.5% (7-for-8) at the free-throw line. Wiggins also pulled down two rebounds with two steals in 37 minutes of action.
Bubu Benjamin was next in scoring with nine points on 4-for-10 (40%) shooting from the field and a 1-for-3 (33.3%) effort from beyond the arc. He added four boards, two assists, and three steals to his final line while playing 24 minutes.
Jared Turner also had a solid outing for the Monarchs, contributing eight points and a team-high eight rebounds in 27 minutes off the bench. The fourth year from Silver Spring, Maryland made all of his shot on the night, going 3-for-3 overall and knocking down both of his three-point attempts.
The Monarchs (1-0) opened the scoring at the 19:26 mark in the first half as Benjamin found Wiggins for a fastbreak dunk. WMU’s Augustinas Kiudulas put the Broncos (0-1) ahead, 7-6 with a triple at the 15:02 mark, but ODU responded with an Adante’ Holiman jumper with a pullup jumper near the right elbow.
The visitors then seized back control with an 8-0 run, highlighted by a couple of deep balls from Janis Jünemann and Mason Bendinger, to grab a 15-8 advantage. After Turner nailed a triple from the top of the arc to cut the deficit to 17-13, the Monarchs were able to catch back up at 19-19 thanks to jumpers from Turner and CJ Harper and a layup by Scottie Hubbard. A basket by Rob Lee Jr. and another long ball, this time from Jaylen Washington, saw the visitors pull ahead, 24-19 with under four minutes to go in the opening stanza.
After being held scoreless for over five minutes, the Monarchs scored 11 unanswered points to close out the half. Wiggins started the run with a layup, Banjamin followed with another score a minute later, and Wiggins got another shot to fall with 1:32 left in the half. On ODU’s next possession, CJ Lyons got the ball near the left wing and drove towards the basket, drawing the attention of multiple Broncos. That left a trailing Kylan Howze wide open for a highlight dunk, and Turner had another wide open look for a three-ball with two seconds left as the Monarchs took a 30-24 lead into the locker room.
Western Michigan came out of the break with some energy, as the Broncos put together a 13-0 start to the second half highlighted by three triples from Kiudulas, Washington, and Tanner Hayhurst. Down 37-30, a Khoi Thurmon layup snapped the ODU scoring drought at the 14:56 mark. Wiggins followed with a layup and then went 1-for-2 at the line as the Monarchs trailed, 37-35 with 12:17 to go.
On the team’s slow start to the second half and getting back into the game, Wiggins replied, “Coach Jones has been preaching to us toughness every day, and we just never give up as a team. We stick together and play together.”
Thurmon kicked the ball out to Hubbard for a three from the left wing to trim the WMU advantage to 39-38 with 10:41 on the clock. Following a Lee Jr. jumper in the paint, Wiggins knocked down four free throws and Thurmon scored a layup as ODU overtook Western Michigan, 44-41.
Wiggins continued to get to the line down the stretch, and Benjamin nailed a deep ball and added a strip and fastbreak dunk to push ODU’s lead to 57-45 with just under three minutes to play. Washington got to the line with 2:37 remaining, but missed his first shot and made his second. Wiggins added to his stat line with a couple of layups in the final two minutes, and Hayhurst rounded out the scoring with a three-pointer with 34 seconds to go.
Asked about taking over the game in the second half, Wiggins answered, “Just trusting in my work and believing in me. My teammates believe in me, so I just play with max confidence.”
On his team wearing down their opponent, Jones added, “I don’t know how many guys we wound up playing, but especially in that first half, we went so far into our bench. Then in the second half, we did not sub as much because of the way the game was flowing. Again, I’m so proud of my team. What we talked about and what we needed to do, we didn’t do it for all of the 40 minutes, but we did it enough to get a win.”
As a team, the Monarchs combined to shoot 25-for-56 (44.6%) from the field, 4-for-15 (26.7%) from distance, and 7-for-13 (53.8%) at the charity stripe. ODU had a good chunk of its points down low, outscoring WMU 36-16 in the paint. The Silver and Blue also edged The Broncos in points off turnovers (16-4), fast-break points (8-3), and points off the bench (21-12). ODU also won the battle on the glass, 37-32.
ODU led by as many as 15 points and held the lead for 16:47. There were only six lead changes and just four ties. Nine of the 12 Monarchs that saw the court also wound up in the scoring column.
“Coach always preaches to us that we have a deep team, we have a lot of people that can play and contribute. So we’re going to do good,” added Wiggins.
Up Next
The Monarchs have a quick turnaround as they host Division III Regent University this Wednesday at 7 p.m.