Optimism is key for JMU
Posted on February 18, 2008
James Madison lost for the ninth time in 10 games Saturday, but optimism pervaded the postgame press conference.
“Good effort by our guys,” JMU men’s basketball coach Dean Keener said at the outset. “At the end of the day, you’ve just gotta be able to come up with a stop.”
The 85-86 loss was reminiscent of late-game struggles at home to William & Mary and Delaware, but Keener focused on positives from Madison’s 11th conference loss.
“We had several good performances,” Keener said. “It might have been Kyle [Swanston]’s best in uniform here.”
Despite the junior forward’s career-high five 3-pointers, JMU fell short against the team that started Madison’s slide. The Dukes’ Jan. 5 loss at Hofstra was the first of 11 losses in 13 games for JMU.
The Pride relied on clutch plays from senior guard Antoine Agudio to secure the victory, but everyone’s been giving Madison their best shot lately.
“He hit two tough shots,” Swanston said. “He was hitting tough shots all night, and you gotta give him credit for that.”
Agudio dove on a loose ball after swiping it from JMU sophomore point guard Pierre Curtis, and the senior fittingly sealed Hofstra’s victory. Agudio hit two shots in the game’s final 18 seconds to erase a three-point JMU lead and scored 30 points, 24 in the first half.
But the latest in a series of last-minute losses isn’t distracting Madison from the games left on its schedule. In post-game interviews Keener was positive, and players emphasized that everyone knows their role on the team.
Curtis said that Saturday’s loss actually reminded him most of the Dukes’ 62-61 win over VCU on Jan. 2, when he brought the ball up and dished to Juwann James for the game-winning basket.
But JMU’s first game of 2008 wasn’t an accurate indication of things to come, and the Dukes find themselves tied for last place in the Colonial Athletic Association with Drexel and Georgia State, the last two teams on Madison’s regular season schedule.
Now that Curtis and Swanston are back and healthy, JMU’s four remaining regular season games leave the door open for the Dukes to establish momentum going into the CAA tournament. Three of those four games are at home, including a BracketBusters matchup with Morehead State University on Feb. 23, hosted by O’Reilly Auto Parts and ESPNU. There are 50 games being played across the country as part of the sixth annual event.
Curtis took just two shots Saturday, only because he didn’t need to be a major scorer and not because of his hiatus due to injury, according to Keener. Swanston scored 17 points, while junior guard Abdulai Jalloh added 24 and junior forward Juwann James scored 22.
JMU had a three-point lead with less than a minute left until Agudio hit a runner in the lane with 18 seconds remaining. After Curtis missed a one-and-one free throw Agudio struck again with 10 to go, squaring up midair at the right elbow for a 15-foot jumper.
“The only positive thing out of this is we were in control, we had a chance to win the game,” freshman guard Heiden Ratner said.
JMU had that chance, but finishing games has been difficult for Madison lately. JMU plays Wednesday against Old Dominion at the Convocation Center, one of three CAA games remaining for the Dukes.
