On Wednesday night, the Dukes traveled down to Georgia State University. While it was clear outside, fans might have said something different about the weather inside. JMU hit 16 of 29 3-pointers (55.2%), topping their previous record of 13. The two biggest scorers of the night were freshman Julius Wells, who went 6 of 10 from behind the arc and had 24 total points, which was a career high and game high, and senior Kyle Swanston, who ended up hitting 7 of 12 3's and ended up with a career-tying 23 points. Two other large contributors in tonight's game were junior Pierre Curtis and sophomore Ben Louis, who both put in a ton of effort and were keys to getting so many good looks. Pierre played a great second half, finishing with 9 total points, 4 rebs, 5 assists, and 2 steals. While Ben finished the night with only 4 points, he added 4 assists, 3 steals, and in 23 hard-played minutes was in on many rebounds. Also solid, as always, were freshmen Andrey Semenov (11 pts, 5 rebs, 1 assit, 1 steal) and Devon Moore (9 pts, 3 rebs, 3 assists, 2 steals). As you can see, the freshmen are still playing outstanding basketball and are the best freshmen class in the conference. Coach Brady commented in the post-game interview that he didn't want to talk them up a lot at the start of the season, but wanted to let them make their own imprint. This has obviously happened as they combined for 43 points tonight and they have all won at least one CAA Rookie of the Week award with Wells on track for another one this week. Brady also went on to say that they have only scratched the surface of their potential and that they have a lot of improving to do. Our offense the second half was incredible, going for 52 points in 20 minutes.
Coach Brady pointed out that one of the things that worked great for us tonight was the ball movement, skip passes, and cross-court passes that got us many open shots. The Dukes also had only 9 turnovers compared to 17 assists, which is great considering the vaunted GSU defense. On the other hand, our defense wasn't at its best either and reminded me of last year's high scoring games, allowing them to shoot 51.8% (29-56) from the field. Though, they only shot 21.1% from behind the arc, making 4 of 19. With Juwann out (latest word is that he might have had a panic attack, still nothing definitive) we didn't have a great post presence, but did well considering. A final score of 82-69 shows how much of a difference it makes when Kyle is back on fire again at long range and the rest of our shooters are hitting as well. Let's hope it carries over.
The Dukes can expect a much better performance on the other side of the ball on Saturday against Mason, who is #2 in the CAA at 9-3 (16-6). Brady also added that we won't be getting 29 3's on Saturday against their outstanding defense. In news around the CAA, last place W&M beat #1 in the CAA NE (notching only their second CAA win of the season), and 11th place UNCW beat 2nd place VCU. #4 Drexel also lost to Delaware, dropping them to 8-4 in the CAA, making Saturday's game that much more important because Drexel will be playing ODU (who is tied with JMU for #5). This means that we can tie for #4 or be #5 outright with a win. Everyone needs to be there at 1pm (tip-off at 2pm) for the return of the Electric Zoo on February 7th!
DNR: Dukes Rain Threes
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