JMU women win on Senior Day

James Madison sent its senior class out with a 63-44 win over Old Dominion in the Dukes’ final home game of the season in Colonial Athletic Association women’s basketball Sunday afternoon at the JMU Convocation Center.

JMU improved to 22-6 overall and 13-4 in CAA play.  ODU dropped to 9-20 overall and 6-11 in the CAA as the Monarchs dropped their fourth straight game.

JMU held an opponent under 50 points for the ninth time this season, a school record.  The Dukes also limited ODU to 27.7 percent (13-47) shooting from the field, marking the sixth time this season that JMU held an opponent under 30 percent shooting.

The Senior Day game was played in front of a season-high 5,179 fans, the fifth-highest attendance in school history.

JMU was led in scoring by junior guard Tarik Hislop (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) with a game-high 20 points.  Redshirt senior forward Lauren Whitehurst (Chesapeake, Va./Indian River) finished with 10 points and a game-high 10 rebounds for her second consecutive double-double.

ODU freshman guard Ashley Betz-White (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) was the only Monarch in double figures with 10.

ODU scored the game’s first seven points and led by 11, 13-2, at 16:47.  But JMU used a 12-2 scoring run in a span of just under five minutes to take its first lead, 19-17, on a long three-point bank shot by junior forward Nikki Newman (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby) at 9:51.

With JMU ahead 22-21 at 6:47, the Dukes outscored ODU 10-2 in the final 6:24 to take a 32-23 lead into intermission.

ODU opened the second half by outscoring 6-2 to get within five, 34-29.  But the Monarchs did not score a field goal for more than 14 minutes while JMU increased its lead to as many as 24, 61-37, with 5:08 to play.