Men’s Hoops Wins Seventh Straight Game, Beating ECU 67-61

Ron Curry took over the game in the second half and guided the Dukes late in finally putting away American Athletic Conference foe EZU 67-61 on Sunday. Curry accounted for more than a third of JMU’s total with 23 points. His improved outside shooting combined with a little less defensive attention focused his way this year with the emergence of Shakir Brown have really begun to open things up for the senior guard. Curry is now 20th all time in points for the Dukes and will likely pass former teammate Andrey Semenov and another former PG with a similar game in Pierre Curtis in the next game or two.

In what is becoming an extremely encouraging trend, the Dukes won the rebounding battle 37-34, getting big contributions from Yohanny Dalembert, who hopefully is starting to find his form after battling an injury throughout the early part of the season.

With one game left in the non-conference schedule (Tuesday vs. Mt. St. Mary’s) before beginning CAA play vs. College of Charleston at home on New Year’s Eve, Coach Matt Brady and the Dukes have to pleased with their work so far. After starting the season with the big win at Richmond and a respectable performance against powerhouse West Virginia, we were all wondering what the heck happened when the Dukes inexplicably dropped two games in their own tournament over Thanksgiving to UT Martin and Oral Roberts. But they’ve bounced back very strong with the current winning streak and a win Tuesday would give them a 10-3 mark heading into the heart of the season which would give them every opportunity to exceed 20 wins by continuing to build on this success in conference play.