Senior guard Kirby Burkholder (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) scored a game-high 24 points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds while leading the James Madison women’s basketball team to a 63-46 win over the University of Virginia at the JMU Convocation Center, Friday evening.
The Dukes improved to 8-3 in season openers under Head Coach Kenny Brooks, starting the season at 1-0. Virginia dropped to 0-1 with the loss, snapping the Cavaliers’ eight straight wins in season openers.
Burkholder’s 24 points came on 5-of-15 shooting including four three-pointers and 10 free throws. She became the 26th player in program history to surpass 1,000 career points with a free throw at the 6:46 mark of the first half. She finished the game with 1,019 career points. She also pulled down seven offensive rebounds and nine defensive boards, adding a block and a steal in 38 minutes played.
Virginia scored the first 10 points of the game, running out to a 10-0 lead by the 16:51 mark of the first half, but JMU responded by scoring 12 of the next 14 points to tie the game at 12-12. The Dukes took the lead for good with a pair of free throws by Burkholder at the 7:25 mark. They stretched the lead out to as many as 17 points and never let the Cavaliers get closer than six points the entire second half.
Joining Burkholder in double figures was sophomore guard Precious Hall (Tallahassee, Fla./Maclay School) with 12 points while junior forward Toia Giggetts (Norfolk, Va./Lake Taylor) added eight points and nine rebounds. Sophomore point guardAngela Mickens (Staunton, Va./Robert E. Lee) came off the bench to play 38 minutes, supplying six points, eight assists, two steals and two rebounds.
Virginia was led by guard Faith Randolph with 18 points, four rebounds and three assists. Guard Reshaun Gaffney supplied eight points off the bench while forward Sarah Imovbioh scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds.
The Dukes outscored the Cavaliers 26-8 in the paint, and the JMU bench contributed 20 points compared to Virginia’s 10.
JMU dominated the boards in the game, out-rebounding UVA 49-26, including 23 offensive rebounds. The Dukes held the Cavaliers to a 28.3 shooting percentage while shooting 33.9 percent themselves and had two blocks to UVA’s none. Both teams stole the ball nine times with JMu finishing with 19 turnovers to UVA’s 17.
Madison won for the eighth time in the series history against Virginia, including for the fourth time in the last six meetings. Virginia leads the all-time series 15-8.
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Chris Graham
