Without Dawn, difference is night and day
Posted on January 22, 2008
James Madison women’s basketball coach Kenny Brooks wouldn’t chalk up a 61-60 overtime loss to the absence of freshman point guard Dawn Evans, who has a stress fracture in her left foot.
But he did say that figuring out combinations of players was a “struggle,” and as a result Virginia Commonwealth broke JMU’s streak of 20 consecutive home conference wins Sunday. Thanks to uncharacteristic mistakes made by Brooks’ team, the Rams won on a free throw with 1.9 seconds left in overtime.
“We have to try to simplify the offense, [and] when you simplify the offense it’s easier to key on Tamera who is the preseason CAA player of the year,” Brooks explained at the post-game press conference.
JMU suffered as a result and fell to 10-6 overall, 3-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association. VCU (14-2, 4-1) is behind three CAA unbeatens in the conference standings: ODU, Towson, and Drexel. JMU now stands in fifth place in the CAA.
“When you make the mistakes that we made — some of them looked more glaring than others, because of the timing of ‘em— but there were mistakes throughout the game that were uncharacteristic, and that you’re not gonna win basketball games [with],” Brooks said.
JMU committed 19 turnovers as senior guard Jasmin Lawrence tried to settle into the point guard position. When Dawn Evans sat out Thursday’s game at George Mason, JMU won 63-46 and Lawrence played 35 minutes at the point guard position without any turnovers. But she struggled against VCU’s pressure and had seven turnovers, the most costly of which happened at the end of both regulation and overtime.
With the game tied at 55 and 19 seconds left in the second half, Lawrence lost the ball out of bounds near the JMU sideline and the Dukes lost a chance to win in regulation.
“I don’t know what it was about today, I came into the game confident playing the position I was playing,” Lawrence said. “It was one of those games.”
While Young led JMU with 22 points and 12 rebounds, she made only eight of 23 field goal attempts. Young and Lawrence played all 40 minutes of regulation and the five minute overtime period with JMU short on ballhandlers.
“It was just one of those games we did not have a flow at all,” Brooks said. “As much as we tried, there were several times we were trying to start the offense and we were starting it from 35 feet out, and everything gets stagnant and we get taken out of what we wanted to do.”
But turnovers were not the only issue. Whether or not it was fatigue, Young missed the front end of three one-and-one free throw opportunities in the last 2:37 of the second half. She averages 61 percent on free throws this season.
“I thought the kids collectively did a great job on [Young], tried to make her take tough shots,” VCU coach Beth Cunningham said. “A player like that, she’s going to step up and hit some but I thought Kita [Waller] did a great job on her.”
While VCU failed to score on its last attempt in regulation, Madison continued making careless mistakes in overtime. After rebounding a missed free throw with VCU up 58-57, JMU called a timeout to set up the offense. When they set up for the inbounds play, the Dukes failed to pass the ball in before five seconds elapsed and turned the ball over, leading to two made free throws by VCU guard Kita Waller.
The mistakes continued to plague Madison into the game’s final seconds. With the game tied at 60, Lawrence turned the ball over with seven seconds left in overtime. The Rams converted their opportunity the second time around, as Waller was sent to the free throw line after JMU junior forward Kisha Stokes was called for a foul with 1.9 seconds left. Waller missed the first free throw but hit the second, giving VCU the 61-60 advantage.
“The key to this game for us coming in after the loss to Old Dominion was playing pressure defense, pressure basketball,” Cunningham said. “When you go on the road, if you can defend and rebound I think you can be successful.”
Last Thursday, VCU forward Krystal Vaughn and center Quanitra Hollingsworth became the 15th and 16th players in VCU history to score 1,000 points in an 86-66 loss at Old Dominion. But JMU held VCU’s top two scorers to a combined six points in the first half as JMU took a 25-22 lead into the locker room. Waller led the Rams with 20 points off the bench and Hollingsworth was second with 16.
“I thought we did a great job down the stretch just executing our offense, and kids stepped up [and] knocked shots down,” Cunningham said.
Even more than the shots they hit, it was free throws that gave VCU an edge. The Rams made 19 of 27 free throws, while JMU made just six of 13.
“I felt like it was a rock ‘em sock ‘em type game where every possession just meant so much, and we got a little bit tense during certain times of the game and it showed,” Brooks said.
Evans is supposed to be out four to six weeks with her stress fracture, but the injury will be reevaluated in two weeks. Madison’s next game is against Hofstra (3-13, 1-3) at 7 p.m. in the Convocation Center.
