JMU women’s basketball makes it eight straight

The JMU women’s basketball posted an 85-57 victory over Northeastern on Friday night at the JMU Convocation Center to tally its eighth-straight win and move to 8-0 in Colonial Athletic Association.

Overall, the Dukes boast an 18-4 record after winning their last six games by no fewer than 24 points. Northeastern fell to 2-7 in conference action and 8-14 overall.

Sophomore guard Precious Hall (Tallahassee, Fla./Maclay School) notched a career-high 26 points against the Huskies, just two games after dropping 25 points against Charleston. She added three rebounds, two assists and a steal on the night.

Senior guard Kirby Burkholder (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) led all players with 30 points, eclipsing the 1,400-point mark for her career and moving into sole possession of 11th all-time as she passed Sarah Schreib’s 1,380 career points. Her eight rebounds also moved her into sixth on the JMU-career chart (800), passing Nadine Morgan’s 793 boards. Redshirt-senior forward Nikki Newman (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby) also passed Morgan with her six rebounds, moving into seventh place with 794 career rebounds.

Junior forward Toia Giggetts (Norfolk, Va./Lake Taylor) was the third Duke in double figures with 11 points.

Jewel Tunstull paced the Huskies with 26 points, six rebounds, a block and a steal. Tiffany Montagne also scored in double digits (11) and had two steals and two assists.

After Northeastern scored the first bucket of the game 48 seconds in, James Madison went on a 15-2 run and forced the Huskies into their first timeout. The Dukes continued their assault and pushed out to an 18-point lead at 26-8 (7:20, 1st) before the Huskies saw double digits. Madison never allowed Northeastern closer than 13 points in the final 27:20 of play (33-20, 0:35 in the first half).

The Dukes shot 46.7 percent from the floor while the Huskies scored on 40 percent of their attempts from the field. JMU, however, shot 33.3 percent from 3-point range while holding Northeastern to just 14.3 percent (2-of-14) from beyond the arc. The Huskies did not score on their first eight tries from behind the 3-point line.

The battle of the boards went to JMU as the Dukes outrebounded the Huskies 39-24, including a 20-8 advantage on offensive rebounds which led to a 21-2 advantage in second-chance points. JMU picked up 38 of its points in the paint compared to Northeastern’s 20 points. Madison also converted the Huskies’ 24 turnovers into 32 points while only allowing its own 16 turnovers to be converted into 16 points.

Madison returns to the JMU Convocation Center on Sunday, Feb. 9 for a 3 p.m. tip-off against Towson. The game will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

OF NOTE: As a part of the Play 4Kay Pink Out on Friday night, the Student Duke Club sponsored a raffle that raised $471 to benefit the Kay Yow Cancer Fund.