HARRISONBURG, Va. - James Madison started quickly and never relinquished its lead and posted a 74-61 college basketball win over VMI Saturday night before 3,501 spectators at the Convocation Center.
A slow start combined with 23 turnovers and one of 12 three-point shooting made it a long night for the Red, White and Yellow. But the Keydets outshot James Madison, 42% to 39% and out-rebounded the Dukes, 38-37.
James Madison placed three in double figures scoring and was led by Ray Barbosa with 12 points while Jomo Belfor and Cavell Johnson each scored 11 points. Johnson finished with a double-double after pulling down 11 rebounds.
VMI got a team-leading 18 points from sophomore Reggie Williams and junior Matt Murrer scored 13 points on six of 11 shooting.
The Dukes hit five of their first seven shots from the floor and raced to an 18-4 lead with 11:21 left in the first half when James Juwann hit a free throw.
VMI responded with a 10-3 run over the next 4:17 when Matt Murrer converted back to back transition layups. The Keydets stayed within single digits until the final minutes of the first half as JMU assumed a 33-23 halftime lead.
The Keydets pulled within five points early in the second half when Tadas Mankevicius nailed a pair of free throws three minutes into the half to cut it to 35-30, but the Dukes pushed the lead to double digits for good at 13:12 mark when David Cooper dunked to put JMU up, 48-37. VMI stayed within shouting distance when Murrer converted a layup at the 2:25 mark to make it 67-56, but the Dukes hit six of eight free throws the rest of the way to prevent their margin from eroding.
VMI (0-3) faces Old Dominion Wednesday night at 7 p.m. at Cameron Hall to open a three-game homestand. James Madison hosts Appalachain State Monday at 7:00 p.m.
HEAD COACH DUGGAR BAUCOM- "I think James Madison came out ready to play and we really didn't. We let them jump on us in the beginning and we never recovered. I think we got down 17-4 and that kind of set the pace for the rest of the game. We made a few runs at them, but I think five is the closest we ever got back to them. But credit them, they had a good gameplan, and they have so many weapons it's hard; they have three guys in double figures and three more with nine (points), that's pretty good.
On VMI's turnovers- "I just didn't think we were ready to play. As well as they had points spread around, we had turnovers spread around. But credit them, they do a good job in their pressure and a good job of stripping the ball when you go up.
On playing JMU after an ACC opponent- "We knew they (JMU) were going to be good; at least the coaching staff knew, translate that to the kids, I don't know. Coming off Thanksgiving, we practiced horribly last night and it continued today."
On VMI's defense causing low JMU shooting percentages- "They missed some shots, tonight's stats are about what we've been holding opponents to. We just have a lot of trouble scoring. JMU's stats tonight are about two percent less than what we normally do. I hope we had something to do with it, but I don't know. They hit 24 percent of their threes tonight, it seemed like they made more than that, but they did take a lot of them."
On variety of defenses installed in preseason- "Obviously our offense is struggling. I think that's more personnel than what we do. But we think that in our league, you win more games by playing defense. Which is kind of wild because all of my teams have been high-scoring since I've been head coach. We just haven't found the right chemistry scoring-wise, we just haven't had anybody that can score on a consistent basis, Reggie and Matt have led us, but they haven't had a lot of help."
