HARRISONBURG,
Va., Feb. 6, 2012 -- James Madison held
its eighth opponent under 50 points as the Dukes beat visiting George Mason 49-45 in Colonial Athletic
Association women's basketball Sunday afternoon at the JMU Convocation Center.
The Dukes improved their overall record to 16-5 and their CAA record to
8-3. JMU's win, combined with Hofstra's
loss to Old Dominion Sunday, moved the Dukes into a tie with Hofstra for second
place in the CAA.
George Mason's record now stands at 11-11 overall and 5-6 in the CAA
The Dukes shot a season-low 22 percent (15-68) from the field and had their
second-lowest scoring game of the season.
It was JMU's lowest scoring game in a win since a 49-48 victory over Old
Dominion on Feb. 18, 2001.
"I've never seen so many shots hit the back of the rim. We missed some early and it snowballed,"
said JMU head coach Kenny Brooks. "We
shot extremely poorly, we didn't play our best floor game, we didn't have one
of our better players and we still mustered up a win."
JMU was led in scoring by redshirt senior forward Lauren Whitehurst (Chesapeake, Va./Indian River) and junior guard Tarik Hislop (Silver Spring, Md./Paint
Branch), each with nine points, and sophomore guard Debbie Smith (Hampton, Va./Hampton) came off the bench for a
career-high eight points on 4-for-8 shooting.
Whitehurst and sophomore guard Kirby
Burkholder (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) tied for game rebounding honors
with 12 apiece, and freshman forward Toia
Giggetts (Norfolk, Va./Lake Taylor) had nine rebounds. Burkholder, who tied her career rebounding
high, also had game-highs of five assists and three blocks and made a steal.
JMU played without injured junior forward Nikki
Newman (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby), who missed her first career game
after playing 88 consecutive games for the Dukes.
Mason redshirt senior guard Taleia Moton
(Fort Washington, Md./Suitland) led all players with 13 points, well below her
team-leading 22.0 average. Junior guard Rahneeka Saunders (Washington,
D.C./Riverdale Baptist) had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
The teams combined for 30 points in the final 13:03, when JMU outscored Mason
17-13 to break a 32-32 (13:26) tie. JMU
did not score a field goal in the final 10:30 and tallied its last nine points
at the foul line. The Dukes converted
nine of 19 attempts in the final 10:41.
George Mason outscored JMU 44-31 from the field, but the Dukes connected on 18
of 29 free throws while Mason was 1-for-4 from the line.
Game Notes:
First Half
* There were two ties and six lead changes.
* Mason scored six in a row, including 3-pointers by Rahneeka Saunders and Talia
Moton, to build its biggest lead of
the half, 24-17, with 7:33 left.
* JMU held Mason scoreless (0-9 FG, 0-2 FT, 3 turnovers) for the remainder of
the half and the Dukes
finished the half with a 9-0 run over the final 5:01.
* Tarik Hislop scored from just
inside the three-point line with 0.2 seconds left to send JMU into halftime
leading 25-24.
Second Half
* JMU did not trail,
although Mason tied the game at 32 with 13:26 to play.
* The Dukes' largest lead was seven, 41-34, after a Tarik Hislop three-point play with 10:41 left.
* Mason used a 5-0 run to cut the lead to two, 41-39, with 6:53 left but did
not score for the next 4:10, while JMU pushed its lead to 44-39 with 3:05
remaining.
* Mason got as close as three on three occasions, the last 48-45 after a
Saunders layup with 13.9 seconds left.
J
