Tribe trounced in Convo
Tamera Young has career day to lead Madison
By Brian Hansen, sports editor
Posted on January 16, 2007

Entering Sunday’s matchup, William & Mary (11-5 overall, 3-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association) was as hot as any women’s basketball team in the CAA, winning seven in a row.

JMU (13-2, 5-0) was not impressed as the team promptly opened up a 15-point halftime lead on its way to winning 75-51.

“They’re a good team,” W&M coach Debbie Taylor said. “They should win the whole thing.”

It was the Dukes’ fifth win in a row, including four straight CAA games and an impressive 19 straight at home.

“We are starting to hit a stride right now,” JMU coach Kenny Brooks said. “Our overall effort was really good, and we’ll continue to strive until we get where we want to be.”

Junior forward Tamera Young scored a career-high 33 points to lead the Dukes. The Tribe was unable to stop Young, who stepped up with JMU’s leading scorer, senior center Meredith Alexis, scoring just six points for JMU.

“She’s fantastic,” Brooks said. “She was very efficient and played a fantastic game.”

Young also played excellent defense for Madison, contributing eight rebounds and six steals.

She was also aggressive in shutting down reigning CAA Player of the Year Kyra Kaylor by holding her to just one point and forcing five turnovers.

“I think she’s a great defensive player,” Taylor said. “I think JMU might have the two best players in the CAA.”

Added Young, “Last time we played [Kaylor], she scored like 20 points and I really focused on holding below her average of 13 points.”

Aside from Young, JMU also got 11 points and seven rebounds from senior forward Shirley McCall and eight points and eight assists from senior point guard Andrea Benvenuto.

“What’s great about this team is that everyone knows their roles,” Brooks said. “Shirley is the glue and Andrea is the engine that makes us go.”

Both teams came into the game with ideas of how they wanted to control the game. The Dukes wanted to grab the ball and push it down the court at every opportunity. The up-tempo style led to 31 fast break points and two W&M defenders fouling out early in the second half.

“They definitely couldn’t run with us,” Alexis said. “We forced to play some minutes that they aren’t used to playing.”

The Tribe focused its defensive efforts in shutting down Alexis by doubling down on her the whole game and denying her the ball in the post.

“You watch her on film and you see her scoring lay-ups and as a coach, you can’t let that happen,” Taylor said. “We definitely tried to take her drop step away.”

The plan backfired on the Tribe, as they were unable to contain Young, whose 33 points were just two shy of the JMU record.

“We wanted to stop Alexis but I told the team that we couldn’t just let Young shot,” Taylor said. “Our perimeter defenders did not do a very good job today.”

W&M was led by junior forward Devin James, who had 20 points and nine rebounds, and sophomore guard Courtney Portell, who had 13 points.  Senior point guard Sarah Stroh had seven assists in the game.

A season-high crowd of 1,819 saw the game as the Dukes played their first home game in 27 days. They will wrap up their brief two-game home stand when they host on Thursday.