Christmas Comes Early & The Dukes Move to .500

It’s only Christmas Eve, but the JMU Dukes have already given their fans a Christmas present. Devon Moore and the boys won two tight games out in Vegas to move to 6-6 on the season. Playing in the Vegas Holiday Hoops event, JMU picked up wins over San Jose State and San Diego. The Dukes have now won 5 of their last 6 and appear to be building some confidence heading into CAA play.

In the win over San Jose State, the Dukes struggled out of the gate and went into the break down 34-24. A.J. Davis led the JMU rally, pouring in all 18 of his points in the second half. As a team, the Dukes scored a whopping 53 points after the break to close out the 77-68 win. And the shot well from the line, hitting 10 of 13 from the charity stripe in the second half. It isn’t often that this JMU team (or any team) will hit 78% from the field for an entire half, but that’s exactly what they did. After watching JMU football all season, I had come to believe that halftime was simply a chance for JMU coaches to pass out orange slices or something. Coach Brady and his staff appear to be using the time to make adjustments however and against SJSU, it worked.

The Dukes followed up the comeback over SJSU with another gut-check win over San Diego. And again, they did it by closing strong. Devon Moore was held scoreless until midway through the second half. He dropped 13 points in the final 11 minutes to help the Dukes sneak out of Vegas with a 62-59 win. A.J. Davis’s dunk with 1.1 second left clinched it and got the Dukes back to .500 on the season. And if you read this take on the game, you’ll see that Mr. Davis played what was described as “lock down defense” in the second half. Um, OK. We’ll definitely take that. After wowing the fanbase and sparking the team earlier in the season, Andre Nation has settled down and let the seniors lead. Fellow freshman, Ron Curry has elevated his play as of late though. It’s expected that Curry, Nation, and the other freshman will have their highs and lows all season. Heading into conference play however, it’s clear that both of them have a ton of talent and are ready to make major contributions.

JMU is off for the rest of the year, but begins CAA play against ODU next week. ODU has struggled all season and is only 2-10. The Monarchs picked up a quality win over UVA on Saturday though. Sure, UVA has proven that CAA teams are its kryptonite, but it was still a nice win for ODU. Don’t expect them to go down easy in their final season of CAA hoops.

Enjoy the great JMU holiday video above and have a Merry Christmas everyone.