JMU women’s basketball rips William and Mary, 83-42

The JMU women’s basketball team dominated William & Mary on the Dukes’ Senior Day, knocking off the Tribe 83-42 on Sunday afternoon in front of a record-breaking crowd of 6,590 at the Convocation Center.

JMU pushes their overall record to 24-5, 14-1 while William and Mary fell to 8-19, 5-10.

The Dukes jumped out to a 15-2 lead and never looked back.  After a 24-6 run to close the half, they headed into the locker room with a  46-18 lead over William & Mary into half time, marking the eighth game this season they have limited an opponent to fewer than 20 points in the initial stanza.

Senior guard Kirby Burkholder (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) led the first offensive wave with a personal 5-0 run to start her final home game.  Burkholder finished the day with 18 points and five rebounds.  Redshirt-senior forward Nikki Newman (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby) completed her final regular-season home game with five points, five rebounds and eight assists.

Overall, sophomore guard Precious Hall (Tallahassee, Fla./Maclay School) and junior forward Toia Giggetts (Norfolk, Va./Lake Taylor) powered the offense as Hall posted a game-high 20 points with five assists, and Giggetts dropped 19 points with six rebounds.  Redshirt-junior guard Jazmon Gwathmey (Bealeton, Va./Liberty H.S.) added 11 points and a game-high eight rebounds.

For the Tribe, Brooke Stewart scored a team-high 10 points over 20 minutes of action.  Kaitlyn Mathieu grabbed a team-high six rebounds with eight points and an assist.

The Dukes shot 49.2 percent from the field overall, including 56.3 percent in the first half, while the Tribe shot 30.4 percent for the game and were held to 24.1 percent in the first half. Madison scored 44 points in the paint compared to William & Mary’s 20 from the lane, including 10 on fast-break opportunities.

JMU outrebounded William & Mary 50-27 for the game, leading to an 18-5 advantage in second-chance points. Six JMU players posted at least five rebounds and all nine players who saw action snagged at least one board.

Madison’s defense forced 17 turnovers by the Tribe, leading to 23 points for the purple and gold.  William & Mary converted JMU’s 14 turnovers into just seven points.

The second half saw the Tribe get no closer than 28 points as the Dukes slowly pulled further and further ahead, pushing their lead to a peak of 41 points three times in the final half.

The Dukes travel to Boston on Wednesday to face Northeastern at 7 p.m. in their final regular-season game.