Women’s Basketball: Virginia falls in opener at James Madison

Virginia opened the 2021-22 with an 84-69 loss at James Madison on Tuesday at the Atlantic Union Bank Center in Harrisonburg.

Junior forward Camryn Taylor, a transfer from Marquette, scored 27 points in her Cavalier debut. Junior guard Carole Miller scored 14 points and grad student center Eleah Parker, a transfer from Penn, scored 12 points with nine rebounds and four blocked shots.

Kiki Jefferson led the Dukes with 31 points, one of three players in double figures.

JMU scored seven straight points late in the first quarter to build up a 22-13 advantage, but the Cavaliers scored the final four points of the period and the first four points of the second to pull to within one, 22-21, on a layup from Parker with 7:56 left in the half. The Dukes built back up a six-point lead, 39-33, with 1:06 left in the quarter. Jamia Hazel hit a dagger three with 4.6 seconds left in the half to put JMU up 44-35, but Taylor Valladay answered with a three-quarter court shot at the buzzer that went into the net to cut the halftime deficit to 44-38.

Virginia opened the second half on a 6-2 mini-run. Back-to-back layups from Taylor made it a one-point game, 46-44, but the JMU shooters got hot, converting their next five field goal attempts to build up a 56-46 advantage. The Dukes continued to build, scoring the final seven points of the third period to lead 71-50.

Virginia scored the first nine points of the fourth quarter, with Taylor scoring her 27th point of the game to make it 71-59 with 7:52 remaining. A jumper by Miller got the deficit back down to 10, 73-63, with 6:10 remaining, but the Dukes built back up to  a 17-point advantage in the final minute of play. Parker closed out the game with a layup for the final 84-69 score.