Bench Propels Dukes Past Radford

Dukes silence the least intimidating crowd ever.

JMU got the easy win it needed, defeating Radford by the score of  78-57 last night. It was JMU’s largest margin of victory for the season and it came as result of a strong effort by the Dukes’ reserves. Alioune Diouf came out of nowhere to lead all scorers with a career high 19 points!

We expected JMU to beat Radford, but this win didn’t exactly follow the predicted script. Again, Alioune Diouf led the Dukes to the win. Alioune Diouf. He is a nice player who showed some flashes last season, but he’s been pretty much glued to the bench all season. To put things in perspective Diouf hit one 3-pointer last night for every minute he had played in the first 9 games. And he only hit 4 treys. He hadn’t scored a bucket all season. Brady gave Alioune and the reserves some run last night though and it paid off big time. The Dukes had 42 points from the bench.

This Radford team isn’t very good, so it would be foolish to try to read too much into this blowout win. It was Radford’s 7th loss in a row and 5th by more than 20 points. They are not a good basketball team and it wasn’t much of a test for JMU. It really was just what the Dukes needed however. Everyone on the roster got to play and 11 Dukes got on the scoresheet. Heading into the game only 7 players on the roster had scored all season.  With the game in hand early, Brady was able to rest his starters and give major minutes to guys who hadn’t played much. Four reserves logged at least 20 minutes.

Basically, this was a game that would have meant something if JMU lost or if it was close. A comfortable win was expected though and thankfully the Dukes delivered. Nothing to get too excited about, but a good way to end the brief slide and head into the break for exams.

Photo from JMUsports.com