Drexel limited JMU to 12 first-half points and maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half in a 60-48 decision Sunday night in a Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.
Drexel improved to 10-14 overall, 6-6 in the CAA. JMU fell to 14-12 overall and 8-5 in the league to fall to fourth place in the conference standings.
Guard Frantz Massent led Drexel in a low-scoring game with 14 points while Derrick Thomas added 13. Damion Lee totaled nine points, six boards and three assists.
Freshman guard Charles Cooke (Trenton, N.J./Trenton Catholic) netted a career-high 16 points on 7-for-11 shooting to go with six rebounds. Senior forward Rayshawn Goins (Cleveland, Ohio/Glenville) added 11. Senior guard Devon Moore (Columbus, Ohio/Northland) contributed 10 points, five boards, four assists and two steals.
The Dragons held JMU scoreless for 10 minutes in the first half and without a field goal for nearly 12 minutes to build a 23-12 advantage at the half, the second-lowest first-half total in program history.
Madison showed a quick burst out of the locker room to cut the margin to seven with four points in the first minute. However, after a 19-3 stretch in the first half by Drexel, the Dragons reeled off a 13-4 run in five and a half minutes of the second half to build their largest lead at 39-22 with 11:21 to play. JMU cut the margin to single digits just once with less than a minute to play.
Drexel shot 42 percent overall and 32 percent from the three-point arc. The Dragons went 14-for-19 (74 percent) at the charity stripe. JMU shot 38 percent for the game and find better success in the second half at 45 percent. The Dukes were just 4-for-18 (22 percent) at the arc and 8-for-15 (53 percent) at the foul line. DU held a 35-26 advantage off the glass.
JMU had good early energy on both ends and built a 9-4 lead in the first six and a half minutes. However, the Dukes went stone cold from the floor the rest of the half, hitting just one field goal in the final 13:30, a three-pointer by Andre Nation.
Drexel ran off 12 unanswered points before the Nation three and finished the half outscoring the Dukes 19-3 overall for a 23-12 lead at the break. JMU shot 28 percent in the half and went 1-for-7 from the arc. The Dragons shot 39 percent in the half.
JMU will have a quick turnaround with a 7 p.m. game Tuesday night at home at the Convocation Center against Towson. The game will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet (Mid-Atlantic/New England), Comcast Charter Sports Southeast (CSS) and The Comcast Network (Philadelphia).
Share
AFP
