George
Mason at James Madison
Sunday, March 3 | 2:00 P.M. | JMU
Convocation Center
Live
Stats | Audiostream
| Videostream
THE BASICS
◊ Tickets: Tickets range in price from $7-10. Please click here
for specific information.
◊ Parking: Free parking on first-come, first-serve basis. Please click here
for a parking map.
◊ Where: JMU Convocation Center,
Harrisonburg, Va. (capacity: 7,156)
◊ Multimedia:
>> Local Radio: WHBG 1360 AM (Harrisonburg,
Va.)
>> Audiostream & Videostream: MadiZONE on JMUSports.com (free;
requires registration)
SENIOR DAY CELEBRATION
◊ Prior to tip-off, senior Tarik Hislop and redshirt senior Kanita
Shepherd will be recognized for their contributions to the JMU women's
basketball program. They will play in
their final home regular-season game as Dukes against George Mason.
EXTRA, EXTRA: Duke Dog Reading Day
◊ Sunday's match-up against George Mason marks the second of two Duke Dog
Reading Days with JMU women's basketball, presented by Bruster's and O'Neill's
Grill.
◊ The Duke Dog Reading Program, in its 24th year, encourages reading by
area elementary school students.
◊ Some 14,000 student readers from 33 schools in 10 school systems
(Augusta, Frederick, Greene, Page, Rockingham and Shenandoah counties and the
cities of Harrisonburg, Staunton, Waynesboro and Winchester) participated in
the program, and more than 4,000 students met the reading goals and are
eligible to attend the designated games.
◊ Students are given a set number of books to read over the course of four
weeks. Those who complete their reading
goals are rewarded with a voucher for a scoop of ice cream from Bruster's Real
Ice Cream in Harrisonburg
and tickets for themselves and two others to the designated JMU women's
basketball game. There is also a half
time recognition for the top three reading schools, and the classes that reach
100% participation receive a poster autographed by the JMU women's basketball
team.
◊ The success of the program has garnered national attention. In June 2007, the Duke Dog Reading Program
was identified by the National Association of Collegiate Marketing
Administrators as the Gold Winner of the single day attendance promotion for
women's basketball.
◊ The program traditionally draws large crowds, and in 1996-97 a
Convocation Center-record 6,500 fans attended the Jan. 17 game with Old
Dominion. Last year's two games drew
season-highs of 5,179 (Feb. 26 ODU) and 4,637 (Jan. 29 Delaware)
fans, ranking number five and 12, respectively, among all-time home attendance
in JMU history.
LAST MATCH-UP
1/24/13 Patriot Center, Fairfax, Va.: JMU
71, George Mason 55
SCOUTING GEORGE MASON
♦ The Patriots
are tied with Towson for ninth
place in the Colonial Athletic Association standings heading into their final
two games of the regular season. George
Mason has a 4-12 record against league opponents and is 9-18 overall.
♦ Senior guard Rahneeka
Saunders leads the team in scoring (11.6), assists (3.0) and steals (1.9). She also pulls down 4.8 rebounds per game and
shoots 82.1 percent (69 of 84) from the free throw line. When JMU faced Mason on Jan. 24, Saunders was
the lone Patriot in double figures with 14 points and grabbed a team-high eight
rebounds, seven assists and three steals.
♦ The leading
rebounder for George Mason is senior forward Amber Easter, who is
pulling down 6.9 boards per outing. Just
behind her are redshirt junior Janaa Pickard with 5.2 rebounds and redshirt
senior Joyous Tharrington with 5.1 rebounds per game. Pickard tops the team in blocked shots,
averaging 1.1 blocks each game.
♦ When facing CAA foes, the Patriots are scoring an average of 53.7
points while allowing opponents to put 61.2 points on the board to hold a -7.5
scoring margin. They are also turning
the ball over 2.4 more times each game than league adversaries, giving the ball
away 17.3 times compared to 14.9 times by opponents.
JMU FAST BREAK
♦ The Dukes are
tied with Drexel for second place in the CAA
standings with a 13-3 league record.
Overall, JMU holds an 19-9 record including 10-5 within the confines of
the JMU
Convocation Center.
♦ Senior guard Tarik
Hislop and junior guard Kirby Burkholder lead the Dukes in scoring as
they average 16.9 points and 14.7 points, respectively. When looking at just conference games,
freshman guard Precious Hall joins the double-figures club with a
scoring average of 12.7.
♦ While
Burkholder leads the team in rebounds (8.6), the team is getting significant
contributions from sophomore forward Toia Giggetts and redshirt freshman
guard Jazmon Gwathmey under the basket.
When facing CAA opponents,
Giggetts is pulling down 7.4 boards were game while Gwathmey is grabbing 5.4.
♦ Gwathmey has a team-leading
19 blocked shots, and Kanita Shepherd has 18 blocks. Shepherd has swatted away 10 shots during
conference play, and Gwathmey has knocked away nine in that same time span.
