Quick Thoughts on JMU Over Northeastern

JMU beat Northeastern 49-46 in Boston tonight. If you’re a fan of free flowing, up and down the court sort of basketball, then it probably wasn’t a game for you. If you’re all about the W, then congrats. JMU got one. A well deserved and hard earned one. The Dukes are now 8-13 overall and 3-4 in CAA play. The Huskies fell to 7-15 and 4-4. Andre Nation led a well balanced Dukes attack with 13 points. Ron Curry had a pretty good night running the offense and finished with 5 assists. Here a few quick thoughts on the win.

Semenov Steps Up

It’s just like the old cliché says, college basketball is a game for sixth year grad students. Well, the cliché is something like that I think. Or it’s not at all. In any case, JMU’s elder statesman, Andrey Semenov, came up big for JMU down the stretch. After a relatively quiet night, Semenov scored 6 points in the closing minutes to help JMU clinch it. He drove, finished with contact, and hit the FT for an old fashioned three point play. He followed that up with a three pointer to extend the lead. And he also made a couple big defensive plays in the second half. He played the sort of game you’d expect from one of, if not the, most experienced players in college basketball.

Slow Pace

Referring to this one as a slow game would be charitable. It was downright ugly at times. But that’s probably fine with Matt Brady. JMU put together an outstanding defensive effort and harassed Northeastern into shooting 17-45 from the field. The Dukes weren’t much better on offense, but they made enough buckets down the stretch to sneak out of Boston with a win. And while they only went to the line 6 times, they hit 5 of them. Ugly wins still count in the standings. And this JMU team seems to do well when they turn the game into a scrappy, grind it out affair. As pointed out by Mark Selig, JMU has scored fewer than 60 points in 5 of its 8 wins this year. Whatever works.

Always Be Closing

Instead of letting a lead slip away late and going home with a disappointing loss, JMU closed strong for the win. Again, it was sort of an ugly win, but that’s fine. Northeastern erased a 6 point deficit to pull even at 41. Instead of folding, JMU punched back thanks to a couple big plays by Semenov. And clinging to a one point lead with only seconds remaining, Ron Curry went right at Northeastern, driving to the hoop, and dishing to Taylor Bessick for the easy bucket. It was a strong and confident play by Curry and a nice finish by Bessick. Considering, Bessick had missed one down low the previous possession, it was encouraging to see the team go back to him and be rewarded for it.

Moving On

After a four game skid, JMU has won two straight. And both of their most recent wins have come over teams that defeated them earlier in the season. The Dukes will have a chance to go for three straight this Sunday when they face William & Mary in the Convo. William & Mary of course crushed JMU earlier this year, so maybe the revenge streak will continue. The Tribe will be attempting to bounce back after suffering a 17 point loss at home to Delaware tonight. Getting a win to get back to .500 in CAA play would be about the best Super Bowl pre game show we can think of.