Dukes topple Rams
JMU hands VCU first loss of season, improves to 4-1
By Brian Hansen, sports editor
Posted on December 4, 2006

Junior forward Tamera Young tied her career high with 28 points as the JMU women’s basketball team (4-1 overall, 1-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association) won its CAA opener 73-63 over Virginia Commonwealth (6-1, 0-1) yesterday.

The 6-foot-2 forward made 10 of her 12 free throws along and late in the second half scored eight straight Dukes points, to help JMU pull away from the Rams.

“The first couple of games this season I wasn’t really driving as much,” Young said. “They were playing a tight man [defense] and that gave me the opportunity to drive.”

Senior center Meredith Alexis picked up her 45th career double double, as she added 17 points and 14 rebounds, despite a tight VCU zone designed to keep the ball out of her hands.

The Dukes were able to take advantage of the Rams’ defense by gathering offensive rebounds and putting in second-chance points.

“That’s one of the things that I think is one of their biggest strengths,” VCU coach Beth Cunningham said. “They get a log of offensive production off first and second-chance points. We just gave them way too many opportunities.”

The Dukes out-rebounded VCU 37-30, including 15-9 on the offensive end.

“That’s a part of what we do,” JMU coach Kenny Brooks said. “One of the things we do well is offensive rebound.”

Aside from leading scorers Alexis and Young, scoring 22.5 and 16 points per game respectively, the Dukes also got a big contribution from junior guard Jasmin Lawrence, who scored in double figures for the first time all season, scoring 12 points in 22 minutes.

“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Lawrence said. “[Alexis and Young] were hitting their shots and that kind of opened things up for me.”

Added Alexis, “It helps us out because other teams will see the film, and now they have another person they need to be worried about, now maybe they aren’t able to deny me the ball as much.”

The Rams shot 50 percent from the field going 24 of 48, including getting a career-high 26 points from forward Krystal Vaughn. Vaughn’s hot shooting inside forced Brooks to switch his defense to a 2-3 zone defense that attempted to force the Rams to shoot more from the outside.

“We had planned on doubling [Vaughn] a lot in the game,” Brooks said. “However, she’s such a tough double because she catches it quickly and turns and shoots so quickly.”

JMU overcame the excellent shooting by forcing 24 VCU turnovers.

“That’s something we stress,” Cunningham said. “We want 16 or less every game, and today we had 11 by halftime. Give credit to their defense, but I think we made a lot of careless mistakes.”

Sunday’s game was the second-straight game where the Dukes were able to defend their home court against a team that came into the game undefeated. On Wednesday they were able to defeat Liberty University 74-64.

The win also pushes JMU’s home winning streak to 16 games. The last time they lost at home was March 3, 2005 against Delaware.

“Every game we look at it like, we’re not trying to let anyone break our undefeated record at home,” Lawrence said. “It becomes one of our goals to go undefeated at home for the whole season.”

Added Alexis, “I think it’s a hostile atmosphere. The pep band looks for the insecurities and they really heckle the other team.”

Alexis’s 14 rebounds gives her 991 in her career.  She is JMU’s all-time career leader in rebounds. She will have an opportunity to go for rebound 1,000 in JMU’s next game, which will be Wednesday as the Dukes take on the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Clemson Tigers.