Devon Moore-less Dukes Defeat ODU in Norfolk

Charles Cooke hit 4 big FT down the stretch to help ice the win.

JMU gritted out a 58-55 win over the ODU Monarchs in Norfolk tonight in the Dukes’ CAA opener. The win gets the Dukes over .500 at 6-5 7-6. After the loss, ODU is stuck at 2-12. Based on the two teams’ records, JMU’s win might not seem like a very big deal. It sort of is though. Obviously starting off the CAA campaign with a win is huge and road wins against any conference opponent can be rare. It’s also the first time in the history of JMUSB that we’ve gotten to write about a JMU win over ODU in hoops (sad, but true). All those things make the win exciting, but the fact that the Dukes won the game without Devon Moore in the lineup is pretty great. Devon had been playing some stellar basketball to close 2012 and had finally started to make the Dukes’ his team. Unfortunately his mother is sick so he’s back in Ohio by his side. Without him, the Dukes could have easily fallen off track. Thankfully the team came together in his absence and fought hard for the win. And they also did it without Andrey Semenov down the stretch after the senior left with an ankle injury.

Typically, we feel shortchanged when we’re unable to watch the Dukes in person or on television. Tonight was one of those games however, where we were kind of thankful we were tuned into the Madizone audio only broadcast. Listening without pictures gave us the luxury of imagining that the Dukes 36% shooting night was due to them just barely missing heavily contested shot after shot. According to the folks who witnessed things however, that wasn’t really the case. It was just a bad shooting night for the Dukes and the Monarchs who only shot 37%. And really, that’s what Blaine Taylor’s ODU teams have done historically. They shoot poorly and they force others to shoot poorly. And it usually works, so I wouldn’t pencil them in for the CAA cellar just yet.

Without Devon Moore in the building, the Dukes seemed to go to a point guard by committee. Down the stretch however, Brady seemed to really trust a couple of freshman with the ball. Charles Cooke and Ron Curry displayed some nerve in crunch time. Cooke hit 4 FTs in the final minute. Twice ODU got within a bucket late, only to have Curry knock down shots to push the lead back to four. Curry finished with 13 points. Rayshawn Goins led the way with 16 and really carried the Dukes offensively for a stretch in the second half. Most people will rightly say this was an ugly game. It was a win on the road against ODU though, so it was kind of pretty in a way to.