Dukes go cold in loss to Tigers
Offensive woes continue to plague Madison
By Matt McGovern, contributing writer
Posted on February 1, 2007

This season’s men’s basketball team can hang with most Colonial Athletic Association teams defensively. Too bad the offense hasn’t.

In Monday night’s game against Towson, JMU led 20-11 with just under nine minutes remaining in the first half when Towson senior guard Gary Neal scored nine points in a 16-6 run that put the Tigers ahead 27-26 going into halftime.

JMU made only two field goals over the final 8:51 of the first half, after hitting seven shots in the opening 10 minutes and holding a lead of 14-5 at one point.

“We’re getting a lot of good looks, we just have to start making shots,” said junior forward Terrance Carter, who scored 19 and grabbed 10 rebounds. “I think defensively we are where we need to be to win games, but we’re just not getting it back on the offensive end.”

The Dukes shot 40.4 percent from the field in this game, including 20 percent from 3-point range.

The second half became an uphill battle for JMU, with Towson shooting 57.9 percent from the field in the final period. However, the Dukes did hold Towson to the mid-50s at the three-minute mark of the game, when JMU was forced to start fouling. 

“Our offense right now is not real smooth and certainly not efficient enough,” JMU coach Dean Keener said. “I think that’s the mark of a young team, especially midway through a season.”

The Dukes have played 10 conference games in a row dating back to Jan. 3, and has held their opponents to 80 or below in each of these games. However, in most of those games, they have been unable to muster enough points to win.

Madison is ranked ninth in the CAA in scoring offense with 63.2 points per game and are last in the conference in 3-pointers made, averaging just 5.33 per game.

A grueling schedule may account for JMU’s offensive struggles in recent games. The Dukes  currently are in a stretch where they’ll play five games in 11 days, including road dates with Northeastern, William & Mary and Delaware.

“Every team is going through that schedule right now,” Keener said at his press conference Monday. “We just need to find a way to battle through it and put a complete game together.”

Second-half struggles have especially been a problem for Madison in recent games. 

Playing at home against George Mason on Saturday, JMU trailed 25-19 at the outset of the second half, when the visiting Patriots went on a 21-8 run in the period’s opening 11:19 en route to a 59-41 victory. 

In a game at Northeastern on Wednesday, JMU trailed 35-33 just more than seven minutes into the second half, only to have Northeastern break open a 20-4 run on the way to a 67-51 victory for the Huskies.