Dukes Cruise By Hofstra 62-41
The JMU Dukes easily defeated the Hofstra Pride tonight by the score of 62-41. The game was close throughout the entire first half, before the Dukes took over and coasted to a comfortable 21 point victory. Unfortunately, point guard Devon Moore left the game with an ankle injury midway through the second half. Even without Moore, JMU was simply too much for Hofstra. It was far from the best game the Dukes have played and they certainly looked sloppy at times. But once again, they took care of business at home and overwhelmed a less talented opponent. The win moved JMU to 13-10 overall and 7-3 in the CAA. And they’re in second place. And it’s the end of January. That’s very cool. Here are a few quick thoughts on the game.
Things We Liked
The Dukes inside game was solid. Rayshawn Goins led all scorers with 16 points. And he scored the majority of them down low. He and the other JMU bigs were too much for Hofstra. JMU scored 28 points in the paint and grabbed 15 more rebounds than the Pride. And in addition to winning the battles down low, the Dukes shot well from long range. They finished the game shooting 43.8% from three-point range. Charles Cooke hit 2 treys and was perfect on all 5 field goal attempts.
The Dukes defense was the real story though. Hofstra was limited to only 33% shooting for the game. After seeing the Dukes play less than inspiring defense the past few seasons, it’s nice to see things come together this year. JMU was all over Hofstra tonight continually forcing bad shots. As a fan, it gave me a weird feeling. I later determined that feeling was confidence. Even before the Dukes got it going offensively, the defense kept them in control of the game. JMU is only giving up 55 points a game in CAA play. That’s tops in the league.
Things We Didn’t Like
It’s tough to complain about a 21 point win, but the Dukes did get a little sloppy at times. They had 12 turnovers on the night, which isn’t terrible. There were a few stretches where things just got a little out of sorts though. With the way they were playing defensively though, they could whether the brief storms and quickly bounce back.
Things That Scared the Hell Out of Us
As we mentioned above, Devon Moore left the game with an ankle injury. Watching live, it looked bad. Really bad. It happened during a scramble for a loose ball. I was sort of half paying attention to the play and then heard Curt Dudley mention that a player was down. I glanced at the screen and saw a player on the ground, tried to figure out who it was, and then In about 3 seconds I went from “Huh, someone fell down” to “HOLY CRAP THAT’S DEVON THIS TEAM IS CURSED.” And then Gene Swindle and A.J. Davis carried off Davis off the court and I continued to panic. No player is irreplaceable, but Devon has been playing great ball and is the key to the Dukes offense. Seeing him carried off the floor was like a punch to the gut. But reports from the training staff and from Devon after the game indicate that I might have overreacted a teensy bit. Devon said he’s playing against George Mason on Saturday. Let’s hope he’s right.
Not only is Moore key to the offense, but Mark Selig thinks he’s a contender for CAA D-POY. Losing him would be problematic on both sides of the court.
Team defense is what’s getting this done this year as our offense is just ok. You take away his playing time and hand more to Davis and we take a big step backwards on D.
Let’s just hope we see him back on the court tomorrow.
I agree with Dukie, we’ll likely might miss him more on defense than anything else. Then again, with how MB has been coaching lately, he’d likely have put Moore on Sherrod Wright. And I’m not sure anyone can lock down Wright, he can just shoot over you.
I still think we win Saturday. We lost the game last time because we got outrebounded by 25. After that game, Brady adjusted the way this team rebounds, and that is bearing itself out in the game statistics as well as the wins column.
Wright is gonna shoot over whoever we put on him. But if Ron Curry can run the point efficiently like he has a lot of the season, AJ can make some good decisions (admittedly a big if), and Ray can give us another dominant game, we’ve definitely got a great chance.
You weren’t wrong for “overreacting a teensy bit” – it looked real bad, and worse to be carried straight from the floor to the locker room. But he didn’t look bad after the game, if he could in fact feel it, and hopefully he’s back Saturday!
laughed real hard at “As a fan, it gave me a weird feeling. I later determined that feeling was confidence.”
Mason is definitely beatable. We beat UNC-W by pretty much allowing everyone not named Dixon to score, and they couldn’t.
Mason has more depth of talent than the Dub, obviously, but frustrating Wright (and, therefore, a team that just blew a big one at home) will be key. Moore was going to be the best at defending him, now I guess it’ll be up to Nation.
Another big thing nobody is talking about is how beat up mason
Has to be feeling right now. I wrote a piece on CAAhoops a couple
Of weeks ago about how daunting of a schedule Mason was about
to run through, and now they’re in the middle of it. Fatigue has got
to be a factor with the run they’re going through… Advantage, JMU.
Wow, that came out really weird.. That’ll be the last time I try to comment via the twitter app on my iPhone. Haha