Minnesota (5-1) dominated inside and led for the final 30 minutes as the Gophers posted an 80-62 win over James Madison (2-3) in women’s basketball in the Cancun Challenge Friday at Moon Palace Resort.
Minnesota shot 49 percent (29-59) from the floor, outscored the Dukes 38-22 in the paint and outrebounded JMU 51-37. JMU shot a season-low 28.2 percent (20-71) from the field after shooting a season-high 50 percent in its overtime win over Green Bay on Thursday.
The Gophers’ Rachel Banham and Kionna Kellogg tied for game scoring honors with 20 apiece, and Kellogg grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Micaella Riche added 15 points and nine rebounds.
JMU was led in scoring by junior guard Kirby Burkholder (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) with 19 points. Also in double figures in scoring were senior guard Tarik Hislop (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) with 12 and redshirt senior guard Jasmine Gill (Greensboro, N.C./Page), who scored 11 points and had a team-high eight rebounds.
The Dukes took an early 12-8 lead at the 16:01 mark of the first half, but Minnesota outscored JMU 12-2 over a six-minute span to go up 20-14 with 9:58 left.
After a 3-pointer by JMU senior forward Nikki Newman (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby) cut the margin to 20-17, the Gophers held JMU without a field goal for nearly eight minutes. During that stretch Minnesota outscored the Dukes 16-3 to go ahead 36-20 with 3:15 left in the half.
Minnesota went on to lead by as many as 21 points (56-35 at 14:50 and 80-59 at 0:50), and JMU was able to get within nine (60-51 at 10:24) but no closer.
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