The Dukes Get Back on Track

The past few weeks haven’t been kind to the JMU men’s basketball team. The Dukes have experienced an unfortunate string of bad luck and were in desperate need of something to pick them up. They were in a bit of a dry spell so to speak. Luckily for the Dukes, the Radford men’s hoops team came to town, ready to play a role that 97% of Radford’s women were born to play. The slumpbuster.

Like with any slumpbuster, tonight was really more about getting back on track than anything else. And as is often the case with these things, it wasn’t pretty. A win is a win though, and the 67-63 victory was desperately needed. JMU had a well balanced attack, paced by freshman Darren White and his game high 18 points. Julius Wells continued his steady production with 15 points. Denzel came ready to play in the match-up against the much-hyped Artsiom Parakhouski. Bowles showed that he’s worthy of some hype himself, dropping 17 points to go with his 15 boards, 5 assists, and 4 blocks. Parakhouski finished with 12 and 9. Advantage Denzel.

This game went all the way down to the wire. The Dukes rallied late and held an 8 point lead with 49 seconds left. Radford fought back and found itself down 2 points, shooting a 1-and-1 with a second left. Luckily for JMU, Lazar Trifunovic missed the front end and Radford fouled Darren White, who sealed the game with 2 free throws.

Like we alluded to earlier, this probably isn’t going to a be a win anyone is bragging about. The Dukes desperately had to pull themselves out of a slump though, and this win did just that. Now Wells, Bowles, and the rest of the Dukes need to string together a couple wins and start building some confidence. They’ll get their chance Wednesday night when William & Mary comes to the ‘Burg for a rematch.