Dukes Storm Back for Huge Win at Hofstra

You can say a lot of things about this JMU basketball team, but you can’t say it’s predictable. After getting destroyed by Northeastern Thursday night, the Dukes mounted a furious second half comeback to beat Hofstra on the road Saturday. JMU dug itself quite a hole, but managed to limit the CAA’s most potent offense to just 18 points after the break. As a result, the Dukes turned a double-digit deficit into a huge 69-63 road victory. The result left JMU and Hofstra tied for second with identical 5-3 marks in league play. They’re a game back of William & Mary, Northeastern, and UNCW who are tied atop the CAA at 6-2.

The Dukes might not be predictable, but plenty of fans are. And many of them were spouting off doomsday predictions after the lopsided loss to Northeastern. As we stated in our gamer, we didn’t think it was that bad. The Dukes didn’t shoot themselves in the foot or give the game away with mistakes. Northeastern just played great and beat them. It happens. With that being said, we definitely weren’t counting on a big road win at Hofstra. In fact we said it would take a full 40 minute effort to beat them. Then the Dukes underachieved for the first twenty minutes, but managed to win with a great second half effort. The lesson, we know nothing.

As we pointed out earlier, one positive to take away from the loss to Northeastern was the play of Ron Curry. The junior’s hot shooting continued as he dropped in a career high 25 points to lead the Dukes over Hofstra. There’s really not much we can say about his shooting of late, other than we hope it continues. Jackson Kent chipped in with 13 points on 5 for 10 shooting. It was his best effort in weeks and ideally should build his confidence a bit. The Dukes are a much more dangerous team when he’s shooting well. Yohanny Dalembert had an off night shooting, but made his presence felt pulling down a team high 9 boards.

By managing to go 1-1 against two of the leagues top teams on this brief road trip, JMU is in a great position. They get to face a struggling Delaware Blue Hens at home Wednesday night. It’s a game they should win. It’s also a game they need to win because they follow it up with back to back games against two of the teams above them in the standings, UNCW and William & Mary.

The only thing we can expect from this team is that they’ll continually surprise us. There have been some good surprises, including yesterday’s second half comeback, and some bad ones we don’t need to rehash. With all of the appropriate small sample size caveats, it does at least appear that the team is playing a little harder and with more enthusiasm since Andre Nation was let go though. Even in Thursday’s loss, there wasn’t any moping around. That improved effort and attitude should pay dividends down the stretch. If the good Dukes show up and manage to take 2 or 3 on this homestand, they’ll be in the mix. The CAA is clearly set in one-bid land, but things are set up for a fun and competitive battle for the bid. No reason the Dukes can’t grab it.