Curry buzzer-beater lifts JMU to 63-61 win at Towson

Junior guard Ron Curry knocked down the game-winning 18-foot jumper as time expired as James Madison grinded out a 63-61 Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball road victory against Towson on Saturday afternoon at SECU Arena.

Curry finished the game with a career-high 27 points on 7-for-15 shooting as the Dukes improved to 14-11 on the season and 7-5 in CAA play. He also tied his single-game career best total with five made treys and converted 8-for-10 of his free throws. Curry also tallied five rebounds and three assists in the victory.

JMU led 61-57 but John Davis trimmed Towson’s deficit in half with 1:13 left on a layup. At the other end, Curry made a pair of defenders miss but his short jumper bounced off the back iron to give the Tigers (11-14, 4-8 CAA) a chance to tie or take the lead. With 24 seconds left, Davis, who finished with a team-best 16 points, was fouled and made both from the stripe to tie the game at 61-61.

On the final possession, Curry took in the inbounds, stepped just inside the arc with a couple seconds left and his shot hit the iron a few times before getting the friendly bounce at the buzzer.

Aside from Curry, freshman guard Joey McLean, making his first collegiate start, finished with a career-best 14 points on 4-for-7 shooting, which including a pair of treys and a perfect 4-for-4 clip from the line. Sophomore forward Yohanny Dalembert matched McLean with 14 points, while leading the Dukes with eight rebounds and two blocks. Junior guardWinston Grays also came off the bench and had career highs of four steals and two blocks.

For the Tigers, Davis posted his CAA-leading 11th double-double by adding 10 rebounds to his team-best point total. Mike Morsell pitched in 14 points and a pair of blocks and Byron Hawks had 10 points while Walter Foster added eight points and game bests of 13 rebounds and two blocks. Four McGlynn also led all players with six dimes.

The Dukes held the Tigers to 45.3 percent (24-53) from the floor and an impressive 22.2 percent (2-9) from deep, the fourth-best 3-point defensive effort of the season for JMU. Towson also struggled from the line, making just 50 percent (11-22) of its tries.

Towson did a nice job on the defensive end, limiting Madison to just 39.6 percent (19-48) shooting, but the Dukes did well from beyond the arc, hitting 41.2 percent (7-17) of their 3-point tries. JMU also made two-thirds of its attempts from the free-throw line at 18-for-27.

The Dukes stormed out of the gates with a quick five points to force the Tigers to call timeout just 32 seconds into the game. Later in the first and trailing by a point at 20-19, Towson put together an 8-0 run, which spanned nearly four minutes, to give the hosts a 27-20 lead with 5:31 left.

The Dukes went without a single point for five minutes until a pair of free throws by Dalembert broke the drought with 4:53 left. TU took a four-point lead with 1:29 to go but a Curry triple sparked a 6-0 JMU surge in the final 57 seconds to give the Dukes a 35-33 lead at half.

JMU went flat from the floor early in the second half and Towson capitalized, scoring 10 of 12 points in the opening six minutes to take a 43-37 lead. JMU stayed in check defensively and never allowed the deficit to grow and down by four at 50-46, a three by McLean opened an 8-0 run, capped off by a Curry trey and JMU regained the lead at 54-50 with 7:58 left.

The Tigers failed to make a shot for more than three-and-a-half minutes and only knocked down three field goals in the final nine minutes as JMU held off a late rally with Curry’s game winner.

The Dukes return to action Tuesday at 8 p.m. when they travel to Newark, Del., to face Delaware at the Bob Carpenter Center. The game will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet and The Comcast Network.