JMU women’s basketball wins 78-68 at Richmond

Sophomore guard Precious Hall (Tallahassee, Fla./Maclay School) led four players in double figures with 21 points and sophomore guard Angela Mickens (Staunton, Va./Robert E. Lee) added 11 points, nine rebounds and eight assists to lead the JMU women’s basketball team to a 78-68 win over Richmond at the Robins Center in Richmond, Va., Thursday.

JMU completed its three-game “Get Back Tour” perfect, improving to 3-0 on the season and 2-0 on the road. Richmond dropped its second straight to fall to 1-3 on the year.

Hall’s 21 points were two shy of her career-high and she added four rebounds, three assists and a steal. Mickens set new personal-bests in points and rebounds and tied her mark in assists. Senior guard Kirby Burkholder (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) had her third-straight 20-plus point, 10-plus rebound performance with 20 points and 10 boards while redshirt sophomore guard Jazmon Gwathmey (Bealeton, Va./Liberty) chipped in eight points, 10 rebounds and four blocks. Junior forward Toia Giggetts (Norfolk, Va./Lake Taylor) was the fourth Duke in double figures with 10 points and five rebounds.

Three Spiders scored in double figures led by Lauren Tolson with 16 points, six rebounds and two assists off the bench. She combined with guard Janelle Hubbard, who had 15 points, to score 31 of UR’s 33 bench points. Forward Genevieve Okoro supplied 15 points, seven rebounds, two blocks and two steals in 25 minutes.

JMU started to pull away at the 13:38 mark of the second half as Burkholder and Hall combined for nine points during a 13-4 Dukes run to turn a tie score into a nine-point lead. The run gave Madison its largest lead to that point, but UR cut the deficit down to as few as four points with a 7-2 run of its own. JMU bounced back with buckets by Giggetts, Burkholder and two by Hall as part of an 11-3 response to extend the advantage to 71-59 at the 2:59 mark.

The lead got as large as 15 on a free throw by Mickens. The Spiders hit a layup with three seconds remaining to get as close as 10, but never threatened the Madison lead over the final four minutes.

JMU dominated the boards, outrebounding UR 55-30 in the game, including a 24-6 advantage on the offensive end. That edge helped give JMU a 22-2 lead in second-chance points. The Dukes hung with the Spiders off the bench, getting 26 points from its substitutes to UR’s 33. Richmond committed just 11 turnovers in the game and shot 42-percent from the field while Madison had 15 turnovers and shot 39-percent.

JMU led 37-36 at the half, making 15 of its 38 shot attempts to shoot 39.5-percent. The Spiders shot 48.1-percent during the opening session, including 3-for-5 from 3-point range, but the Dukes dominated the boards 28-15 to carry a one-point lead into the break. Madison grabbed 13 offensive boards, scoring nine second-chance points compared to just two offensive boards and no second-chance points for UR. The Spiders got 22 points off the bench to the Dukes 13, led by Hubbard with 15 points on 5-for-7 shooting.

JMU hit on four of 11 3-point attempts in the first half, with Burkholder making two of her five attempts. The home-town guard sparked a personal 7-2 run, knocking down back-to-back 3-pointers, with the second turning into a four-point play.

Madison returns to the court on Sunday, Nov. 24, as it hosts Alcorn State at the JMU Convocation Center for a 2 p.m. game.