James Madison's defense lifts them over App State
After losing to the Appalachian State Mountaineers a month ago, the James Madison Dukes responded strongly with a dominant defensive performance and got revenge with a 69-58 victory.
This was the third time this season the Dukes held an opponent to less than 60 points. The stifling defense really started from the moment the game started.
JMU jumped out to an early 7-0 lead within the first three minutes, and it was clear they wanted to bring the energy, forcing turnovers, grabbing offensive rebounds, and securing loose balls. It was a very energetic beginning for JMU.
App State did have a response to that quick start, taking a 10-9 lead at the 9:12 mark after a layup by Luke Wilson. From this point on, the rest of the game would belong to James Madison, with a combination of excellent defense and App State having a rough offensive game.
JMU would go into the half with a 29-24 lead, and both teams were struggling to get anything going offensively. For JMU, they were 12-33 from the field, and the only guy who could really get a rhythm was Justin McBride, who had 12 of the 29 points and six of the 12 field goals.
App State was shooting 33% in the first half and only made one three-pointer.
The beginning of the second half remained competitive, as McBride’s three-pointer put JMU up 40-33 before the first timeout. After a layup by Wilson brought App State to 45-39, JMU went on a 10-0 run to take a 55-39 lead and put the game away at that point.
JMU was able to coast along the rest of the way and pick up a big victory over an App State team that has been one of the top teams in the Sun Belt this season.
While the Dukes got off to a very slow start offensively, the second half saw them turn it around. They were 13-26 as a team and 4-9 from three, and it wasn’t just McBride who was able to put the ball in the basket. McBride had nine in the half, Cliff Davis scored eight, and Greg Newhof scored seven.
For the game, App State only shot 35% from the floor, shot 6-28 from the three, shot 14-24 from the free throw line, and turned the ball over 10 times.
JMU was led by McBride in this one as he had 21 points and seven rebounds and was 9-17 from the field. He was also able to get help from Davis, as he had 11, and Bradley Douglas had 10.
After going for 23 points in the previous matchup, Kasen Jennings wasn’t able to have the same level of success in this one, only scoring eight points and shooting 2-11 from the field and 1-6 from beyond the arc. Alonzo Dodd and Wilson were the guys who did the scoring for App State, as those two combined for 36 of 58 points. Those two shot a combined 12-23, and the rest of the team was 7-31, just a real offensive struggle for App State in this one.
James Madison is now 14-13 on the season, their first time being over .500 since Jan 10. JMU has now won three in a row and will hit the road for a matchup with Coastal Carolina on Wednesday.
App State had its seven-game winning streak snapped, and will be back at home as they welcome Marshall to town.
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