Does everyone remember the longest Breeze article of the basketball season? The one making fun of Jim Larranaga, Mason's Coach, for calling their game with us a rivalry game and saying how big it was for their school? And then how people who actually know the history between the two programs and realize that when both schools have their highest turnouts in games against each other said there may be a little bit of a rivalry there? Well, Tim Chapman, if this wasn't a rivalry in recent history, I think it's safe to say that has changed. With a crowd of 5,470 on hand to watch this game, I think everyone involved in CAA basketball will agree that JMU Men's Basketball is BACK. Large shout out to all in attendance. This is what JMU basketball should be. Thank you for standing and cheering. This gives an invaluable boost to the players. A quick note to point out while you're reading the rest of this article: we played the entire game without Juwann James (the top JMU scorer and rebounder) and the second half without Andrey Semenov (the #5 JMU scorer and #3 rebounder).The game started with the Dukes hitting very few shots, going down 0-6 4 minutes into the game. Then, as the flashbacks of last year started coming back, the threes started falling. Julius Wells was the one to first take the lid off the basket and Kyle, seeing that there was indeed a hole there for the ball to go through, started sinking his shots as well. This was, what I thought, the key to us winning with Juwann out, so I started getting excited. We were playing great defense and we were taking good shots that we were hitting. The rest of the half was a lot of back and forth between both teams that have been deemed some of the better defensive teams in the CAA. One of the best parts was when Dre Smith (who went 10-10 from behind the arc last year setting an NCAA record) completely airballed a 3-pointer. The half ended with JMU up 30-26, and looking around at some of the more passionate students, the look on their faces was what one could call cautious optimism. Everyone was thinking, "it could happen," but didn't want to say it out loud for fear of single-handedly jinxing the chances of losing such a big game.
As the band started back up to welcome the Dukes back onto the court, the arena stood up and cheered. The energy was building. As the Mason players walked out from their locker rooms, they looked like they didn't have any energy. This was noticeable when the half started with a 6-1 run by JMU. At the 16:35 mark, Kyle started a little scoring run of his own with two 3's and a layup that took the lead to a 14 point lead (44-30), the highest of the night. Then, thanks to missed shots, turnovers and some ridiculous fouls that were not being called both ways, Mason gradually its way back. They started playing a press defense also, which caused a lot of our problems. With the air starting to go out of the Convo and Mason fans getting louder, Mason player Andre Cornelius made a jumper at the 5:23 mark to take the lead, 57-58, for the first time since 15:19 in the first half. Another jumper by Monroe took their lead to 3. Luckily, this would be the largest lead they would have. Instead of getting quieter and staying seated, the JMU fans stood up and got louder. After nearly 3 minutes, Dazz hit a jumper and took the Dukes back on top, 63-62. In the last few minutes of the game, every time Mason got the ball, the Convo was...dare I say...electric. The entire arena was on their feet shouting. Even though JMU only hit one field goal the last four minutes of the game, the 7 made free throws were enough to keep us in the lead. With 1:07 left in the game, Mason called their last timeout, proving helpful at the end of the game. With 39 seconds left, Darryl Monroe got called for his fifth foul, leading the JMU fans to start in with this writer's favorite basketball tradition, the left-right chant. With four seconds left in the game, John Vaughn hit a jumper to drop the JMU lead down to 1. On the inbounds, Mason had to foul Devon Moore (84% FT shooter) and he hit 1 of 2. Without any timeouts and only 3 seconds left, Mason's Pearson grabbed the rebound and threw the ball with halfcourt. Though very close, it hit off the rim and as the buzzer went off, the celebrations began. The fans behind the baskets rushed the court as the band played the fight song to celebrate a 68-66 win over previously #2 in the CAA, George Mason.
Kyle finished with 19 points (5-11 from 3-point range), Dazz added 13 points (playing 29 minutes), and Devon added 11 points. Everyone on the Dukes played a solid game, including Matt Parker who came off the bench and made some big plays. The Dukes finished with a 46.8% FG%, 45% 3pt%, and hit 75% of our FT's, which is about on average.
Why is this a big win? Well, there's always that rivalry argument. Then there's the high standing that Mason has had for the last few years. Also, with the freshmen class scoring 24 points tonight, they have become the highest scoring freshman class in JMU's Division I program history. Their total of 739 points is the highest since the '76-'77 freshman class scored 733. But what is the biggest reason of all this is a big win? This win assures that the Dukes (16-9, 8-5) will finish with a winning record for the first time since the '99-'00 season. Could this be the turning point where our program returns to prominence? Will we start getting consistently high attendance numbers again? Am I asking too many questions in this post? Here's to Coach Matt Brady, the Men's Basketball team, the rest of the JMU Athletics program, and the JMU fans for brightening the lights of Madison!
The Dukes play @VCU on Wednesday night.
Update: Drexel lost to ODU tonight, putting JMU, Drexel, and ODU in a 3-way tie for #4 in the CAA. Also, Andrey was taken to RMH as a precautionary measure when he was experiencing dizziness and light-headedness during halftime.
JMUSports.com | Box Score
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