Gritty performance without Brown keys win
Posted on February 25, 2008
Jalissa Taylor received a standing ovation, JMU coach Kenny Brooks gave Tamera Young a game ball and the JMU women’s basketball team hadn’t even started playing Delaware on Sunday.
Taylor, a freshman center, sang the national anthem for a crowd of 4,738 at the Convocation Center, the seventh highest in school history. Right after that Young was honored with the game ball from last Sunday’s contest at Drexel, where she grabbed her 1,000th rebound.
The senior forward became only the second player in JMU history to reach that milestone, joining Meredith Alexis. Young had a game-high 14 rebounds against Delaware on Sunday and JMU won 64-55, but Young struggled with the Blue Hens’ trapping zone defense, making only four of 18 shots.
“They’re committed to that zone, the trapping zone,” Brooks said. “They have the athletes that make it very effective this year. Last year, they were more experienced running it — this year they’re more athletic running it; they’re long.”
While Madison struggled with the pressure defense early, aggressive drives by Young and senior guard Jasmin Lawrence opened things up for freshman point guard Evans to knock down five of eight 3-pointers on her way to 15 points.
“I thought [Young] took the game over offensively from a rebounding standpoint in the second half and hit some very big shots,” Delaware coach Tina Martin said. “That’s what a senior’s supposed to do.”
While Young provides leadership, depth is an issue for Madison. Only eight players saw action for JMU as its roster keeps dwindling.
“It doesn’t worry us,” Young said. “It would be good to have more players, but in the past we would always be short in our numbers because so many players [were] hurt.”
Madison senior forward Jennifer Brown was conspicuously absent — she wasn’t even on the bench — as she missed her second straight game due to “personal reasons.” Brooks said that while he’s had conversations with her recently, the last time he saw Brown in person was before Thursday’s game at Hofstra. That was when they had a meeting and Brown decided she needed to step away from the team until further notice.
Junior forward Nina Uqdah stepped up in Brown’s absence, scoring 10 points and grabbing five rebounds. Uqdah gave JMU the lead for good when she drove baseline and made a layup as she was fouled, and then made the free throw to give JMU a 58-55 lead. Delaware went scoreless for the game’s final four minutes.
“We wanted to really exploit their baseline at the end, and I thought Nina [Uqdah] did a good job of that,” Brooks said.
The 2008 CAA Women’s Basketball Championship tournament is being held at the University of Delaware, so although the teams only played once this year, they could meet again.
“We may see them again on their home floor,” Brooks said. “So hopefully this gives us a little bit of confidence.”
