Curry Three Lifts JMU Over Drexel in OT
JMU avenged an 18 point loss to Drexel two weeks ago, with an exciting 63-61 overtime win over the Dragons last night. The win moves JMU to 11-17 and 6-8 in the CAA. Drexel is now 14-12 and 6-7. After really letting Drexel’s experienced team run all over them in Philly, the Dukes battled all night game earned a hard fought win in the rematch. The Dukes defense pestered Drexel seniors Frantz Massenat and Chris Fouch, holding them to a combined 28 points after the duo burned JMU for 42 in the first match-up. After an ugly first half, JMU stormed out of the locker room to take the lead. Drexel hung in there and managed to keep it tight by hitting free throws. Late in OT when the pressure was at its peak, Ron Curry showed once again that he’s JMU clutch performer. With 6.5 seconds remaining and the game tied at 58-58, Curry hit a step back 3 from the top of the arc to take the lead. Andre Nation then stole Drexel’s inbound pass, was fouled, and hit two from the stripe. Drexel scored a bucket with time expiring, but it wasn’t enough and JMU walked away with a big win.
Talk about a tale of two halves. It was brick city in the Convo for the opening 20 minutes. The visiting Drexel Dragons shot a miserable 7 for 26. JMU was even worse, going 5 for 28 from the floor in the first half. Thankfully, the awful shooting was short-lived for the Dukes. In the second half and overtime, JMU knocked down 14 of 23 shots. JMU’s defense helped Drexel remain consistently awful on offense throughout the entire game. The Dragons improved on their 27% first half shooting performance. Not by much however, as they managed to hit only 10 out of 30 after the break.
JMU’s big three of Curry, Nation, and Cooke carried much of the scoring load for JMU. Curry led all players with 18 points. Nation and Cooke contributed 12 and 13 respectively. The big highlight was obviously Curry’s clutch three in OT. There was a lot to like about this win though.
Both teams are pretty solid defensively, but the shooting in the first half was unspeakably awful. It was so bad, that you assumed it couldn’t possible continue. Yet, for the very experienced Dragons it did thanks to some suffocating defense from the Dukes. On the other hand, the young and inexperienced JMU team made adjustments, and turned the game around offensively. Even when they hit a field goal scoring drought, they retained their composure and continued to control the game. There was no panic in the young Dukes. Freshmen Tom Vodonavich and Yohanny Dalembert had a block party down low, combining to swat 4 shots in the paint. And Vodanovich was a beast on the boards, finishing with a career high 11 rebounds. And for the cherry on top, he also hit two big buckets as the shot clock was expiring. It was the best game I recall seeing him play all year. Dalembert didn’t start due to an injury ankle, but he was aggressive on both ends and chipped in with 9 points on 3 for 4 shooting.
It was only one win. And a regular season win at that. But it gave fans a glimpse of this young team’s potential. The Dukes offense was atrocious in the first half. Somehow, they turned it around after the break and kept an experienced Dragons team from turning things around themselves. And as a fan, it was really fun to watch. Which is pretty much what it’s all about anyway.
Great game by Curry last night. But it was the energy, effort, and rebounding by Dalembert and Vodanovich that got JMU going last night. Please more of those two on the court together and much less of Bessick.
The play that continues to stand out to me was when Dalembert came all the way out the point on defense to disrupt the Dragons when they were running out of time in a late possession. That one defensive series was an entire team effort.
That was one of the most impressive defensive series I’ve seen in a long time.
maybe its just me, and I only watched most of 2nd half and didn’t know about the ugly first half, when i said to myself this might be one of the ugliest games ever. I even said to my brother via text with about 6 minutes to go that the first team to 50 was going to win it was so bad (this was BEFORE Feinstein said it). i don’t think it was pretty game even in the 2nd half, but definitely a gritty, hard-nosed win. So many fouls, bad shooting, horrible bounces, not even good looking lay-ups in some cases. don’t think they can make a run to CAA finals, but I think they will definitely give a good fight even if the youngest in the country.
Ron Curry has emerged as JMU’s most reliable player. Semenov maintains his role as most inconsistent. And Ivan Lukic is apparently no longer a member of the team.