Despite 28 points from junior guard Precious Hall, the 12th-seeded James Madison women’s basketball team dropped a 90-80 decision in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to fifth-seeded Ohio State at Carmichael Arena on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
JMU ends the 2014-15 season with a mark of 29-4, tying a school record for wins, while Ohio State improves to 24-10. The 29 wins marks the second-straight season JMU has won 29 games. The Buckeyes will take on fourth-seeded North Carolina on Monday at 6:30 p.m. in the second round of the tournament, also at Carmichael Arena.
Neither team could pull out to a lead of more than six points in the first half as the two squads traded buckets throughout the entirety of the first half with Ohio State taking a 47-43 lead to the locker room at halftime. The Buckeyes finished the half on a 4-0 run.
Out of the break, Ohio State extended the 4-0 run to a 10-0 run to make it 53-43 just 1:24 into the second half. From there, the Buckeyes kept JMU at arm’s length with the largest lead of the day coming at 88-77 with 41 seconds to play.
On three occasions throughout the second half, JMU cut the Ohio State lead to four points or less. With 13:56 left in the half, redshirt-junior guard Jazmon Gwathmeyknocked down a free throw to make it 61-57, but the Buckeyes answered with a 6-0 run to extend the lead back to 10 at 67-57 with 10:26 to play.
With 8:28 to go in the game, junior guard Ashley Perez hit her fourth 3-pointer of the game to cut the lead to 67-63. After a jumper from Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell, Perez hit again from range to cut the lead to three at 69-66. That was as close as JMU would come, though, as the Buckeyes rebounded to pull back out to a nine-point lead at 75-66 with 4:53 to play and the Dukes couldn’t come closer than six points down the stretch.
Hall’s 28 points tied for a game-high with Ohio State’s Ameryst Alston. Her 28 points upped her career total to 1,506 tallies, now eighth in the JMU career record books. She drained 99 3-pointers this season, the third-highest total for a single JMU season. She also pulled down nine rebounds and had three assists.
Perez finished with 20 points to round out JMU’s double-figure scorers. All 20 of her points came in the second half. She knocked down a career-high 6-of-9 from long range, hitting all six of her 3-pointers in a span of 10:54 from 15:29 to 4:35 remaining in the game. Gwathmey, senior forward Toia Giggetts and redshirt-senior centerLauren Okafor each finished with eight points in the contest. Okafor pulled down eight rebounds while Gwathmey, Perez and Giggetts each tallied seven boards.
Junior guard Angela Mickens notched four points while assisting on 11 baskets. Her 11 assists marked the sixth time this season she had double-digit dishes, a school record. She finished the year with a school-record 249 assists and pushed her career total to 441, which ranks seventh in JMU history.
Behind Alston, Mitchell, the Big Ten Co-Player of the Year, finished with 23 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Alexa Hart tallied 20 points in the win and Shayla Cooper finished with 11 points. Hart also pulled down 13 rebounds while Alston dished out eight assists.
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Chris Graham
