Battle of the unbeatens
Delaware and JMU square off for the CAA lead
By Brian Hansen, sports editor
Posted on January 25, 2007

Throw out the records. Forget that these are the teams that should compete for the Colonial Athletic Association championship. It doesn’t matter that two or even three of these teams could find their way into the NCAA tournament.

“It’s all about the rivalries this week,” JMU senior center Meredith Alexis said. “These three games, you can throw all of that out the window.”

Coach Kenny Brooks and his JMU women’s basketball team starts a stretch tonight of three consecutive home games against the other three contenders for the CAA title.

Tonight the Dukes host the University of Delaware, and then welcome Hofstra University to town Sunday which will be televised on CN8 at 3 p.m., before closing out the stretch next Thursday against defending CAA champion Old Dominion.

“I cannot wait,” Alexis said. “It was really hard not to overlook Drexel and [UNC-Wilmington] last week, but now we’re ready to go play.”

Last season these teams made up the final four of the CAA tournament, with ODU defeating JMU in the championship game to represent the CAA in the NCAA tournament. All four teams, however, received bids to play in the postseason as the Pride, Blue Hens and Dukes all received bids to the WNIT.

“As soon as we got a look at the schedule, this was the week that stood out the most,” Dukes senior guard Lesley Dickinson said.

The four teams share a record of 65-15 this season, including 24-3 in conference. Delaware, JMU and ODU are all undefeated in the CAA this season at 7-0, 7-0 and 6-0, respectively. Hofstra sits at 4-3 but its three losses have been to the Monarchs and twice to the Blue Hens.

To the Dukes though, this is more than just an opportunity to test themselves against the best competition the conference has to offer.

“We look at it as Delaware is coming in here, and they’re just as much a rival as ODU is,” Brooks said. “It’s going to be a fierce competition and, yeah, the team who wins is in sole possession of first place, but you don’t get anything but a pat on the back for that.”

As if any more motivation is needed against Hofstra, JMU is looking to avenge a loss in Hempstead, N.Y., from last season to current Pride coach and former JMU assistant coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey.

“We won’t look past Hofstra,” Alexis said, “not with our former assistant coach leading them.”

Madison also gets the advantage of playing this tough stretch of games at the Convocation Center, where it has won 20 consecutive games.

“The win streak means a lot to us,” Dickinson said. “We love the Convo and we’re expecting a pretty good crowd.”

As for the game against Delaware, it is a matchup of the CAA’s top offensive team in the Dukes against the Blue Hen’s top-ranked defense.

“I guess something has to give,” Brooks said. “But we have a lot of weapons, and that gives us the ability to do a lot of different things.”

JMU is averaging 72.8 points per game and is paced by the No. 2 and No. 3 scorer in the CAA in Alexis (18.5 ppg) and junior forward Tamera Young (17.1 ppg). The duo makes up two of four starters who have scored over 1,000 points in their careers at JMU, the others being Dickinson and senior forward Shirley McCall.

Delaware is giving up just 54.7 points per game and leads the league in steals with 14.72 per game.

Offensively the Blue Hens are led by the CAA’s leading scorer, forward Tyresa Smith, who is averaging 18.6 points and eight rebounds per game.

“We tell the kids all the time that we are going to get everyone’s A-game,” Brooks said. “We know we’re going to take their best shot.”