{"id":1997,"date":"2011-01-22T15:16:37","date_gmt":"2011-01-22T20:16:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1997"},"modified":"2011-01-22T15:16:37","modified_gmt":"2011-01-22T20:16:37","slug":"dukes-lose-another-close-one-to-mason","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1997","title":{"rendered":"Dukes Lose Another Close One to Mason"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Dukes dropped their second game in a row today, falling to George Mason 75-73.\u00a0Taking a step back and\u00a0trying to view things objectively, it was an awesome ball game. There was a great crowd, an ESPNU audience, and\u00a0two rivals going\u00a0back and forth for 40 minutes.\u00a0Viewing things from my\u00a0perspective as a JMU fan and it\u00a0was sort of\u00a0miserable. JMU was in command with an 8 point lead in the second half, then let\u00a0GMU storm back and take the game. It&#8217;s not really a surprise considering that\u00a0the Patriots\u00a0have\u00a0won 14 of the last 15 against the JMU.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve now watched the Dukes drop 2 close ones to CAA contenders. JMU has shown it can play with the league&#8217;s big boys, but has yet\u00a0to figure out how to win these close ballgames. Right now, it appears that the difference between JMU and the other top CAA teams is defense. JMU has been particularly weak on the perimeter guarding against the three. The Patriots hit 50% from behind the arc today. You can say they just got hot, but if you watched the game you&#8217;d know that wasn&#8217;t it. JMU just gave them too many open looks.<\/p>\n<p>Denzel Bowles had another big game, finishing with 21 points, 14 boards, 6 blocks, and 4 assists. Unfortunately he got into foul trouble which limited him down the stretch. The real player of the game was Mason&#8217;s Cam Long though. He took only 9 shots from the field, but scored 30 points. Long is a nice player, but he was absolutely\u00a0ridiculous this game. He hit from long range and seemed to be able to get to the basket at will all game.<\/p>\n<p>Things don&#8217;t get much easier for the Dukes. They head up to Long Island to face Hofstra, another top CAA team on Monday. If the Dukes don&#8217;t step up defensively, I don&#8217;t even want to think about what Charles Jenkins might do to them. Cam Long is good and has a shot at making All CAA. Jenkins is sick and has a shot at making All America. Shutting him down and snagging a road victory would be a nice way for JMU to right the ship.<\/p>\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fjmusportsblog.com%2F%3Fp%3D1997&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dukes dropped their second game in a row today, falling to George Mason 75-73.\u00a0Taking a step back and\u00a0trying to view things objectively, it was an awesome ball game. There was a great crowd, an ESPNU audience, and\u00a0two rivals going\u00a0back and forth for 40 minutes.\u00a0Viewing things from my\u00a0perspective as a JMU fan and it\u00a0was sort [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[455],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1983,"url":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1983","url_meta":{"origin":1997,"position":0},"title":"Dukes Prepare for Tough Test","date":"January 18, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The JMU Dukes are 15-3, tied for first in the CAA, and actually receiving votes in the polls. I am\u00a0even allowing myself\u00a0to dream about JMU returning to the Big Dance for the first time since the 1993-1994 season. It's safe to say that Wednesday night's game against ODU is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2136,"url":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=2136","url_meta":{"origin":1997,"position":1},"title":"Dukes Lay An Egg on TV Again","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The JMU Dukes have played 10 televised games this season. They have lost 8 of them. Much like NBC's The Cape, this team just wasn't made to be televised. Tonight's loss was to conference rival ODU by the score of 74-59. Although at this point it's not really fair to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1898,"url":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=1898","url_meta":{"origin":1997,"position":2},"title":"Dukes Drop 99 Points in Win Over Towson","date":"January 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Dukes absolutely destroyed the Towson Tigers by the score of 99-68 in the Convo tonight.\u00a0JMU started off slow with a couple early turnovers and sloppy mistakes. Fortunately Andrey Semenov sparked a run and the Dukes never looked back. The starters built up a lead and then the back-ups came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3537,"url":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3537","url_meta":{"origin":1997,"position":3},"title":"Ryan Pearson and the Patriots Top JMU","date":"January 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"JMU fell to George Mason 89-79 at the Patriot Center yesterday. It was the Dukes'\u00a0millionth loss in a row to the Patriots. However, it was one of those games that was closer than the final score indicates. I thought it was over when A.J. Davis went to the bench with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/01\/tagsgf-ryan-pearson.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5121,"url":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5121","url_meta":{"origin":1997,"position":4},"title":"Dukes Advance to Face Delaware","date":"March 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"There is another game to focus on, so this is gonna be quick. JMU beat William & Mary for the third time this year to win its opening round game in the CAA Tournament last night. The seniors led the way as the Dukes hung in there in a close\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/jmusportsblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/JSSVOPQGWDOMOWR.20130310060521.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3391,"url":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=3391","url_meta":{"origin":1997,"position":5},"title":"Dukes 4th in Latest CAA Bloggers Poll","date":"December 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"VCU continued its reign at the top of the CAA Bloggers Poll this week and deservedly so. Our Dukes moved up a few spots to 4th. I actually had the Dukes in the 6th slot. Before anyone crushes me, I turned in my ballot prior to Monday's game and was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;JMU Basketball&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1999,"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions\/1999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}