Benvenuto provides assistance

FILE PHOTO Sophomore point guard Andrea Benvenuto looks for the assist. She averaged 4.03 of them per game in 2003-'04.

The JMU women’s basketball team was off to its best start in coach Kenny Brooks’ three-year tenure. After a season-opening loss to Virginia Tech at home, the Dukes won seven-straight. Then starting point guard, sophomore Andrea Benvenuto, received a not-so-wanted Christmas present.

Four days before Santa made his run, the Dukes’ Benvenuto found out she had a stress fracture in the third toe of her left foot — an injury that began to bother her while playing in the Florida Atlantic Thanksgiving Classic Nov. 26 to 27, 2004, at a time when Benvenuto, like the rest of her team, was at the top of her game.

"I was definitely playing my best basketball," Benvenuto said. "Then around when we went up to William & Mary [Dec. 3], I remember specifically, being in shoot-around and it started to bother me."

Benvenuto would play one more game after William & Mary and despite the injury, the 5-foot, 7-inch Ancaster, Ontario, native scored a career-high 11 points Dec. 16 at Charleston Southern to go with a line that included five assists, four steals and two rebounds.

"That affected us dramatically," Brooks said. "The situation went from everyone being comfortable with their positions, to when we played UVa. [Dec. 29] and they pressed us from the moment we got off the bus. We couldn’t get the ball up the court. That would’ve been Andrea’s job. You can’t make up for years of ball handling experience. It took us out of our rhythm a little bit."

Benvenuto would miss seven games — and during that stretch, JMU went 3-4, losing Colonial Athletic Association contests to Old Dominion University, Virginia Commonwealth University and George Mason University. The Dukes defeated Norfolk State, American University and Cornell University, while their fourth loss came courtesy of the University ofVirginia.

JMU’s record stood at 8-5 overall and 1-3 in the CAA.

"Losing her was extremely disappointing," Brooks said. "She had a good tempo on the floor and knew when to drive and when to pull it back. The next game [without Benvenuto] I was nervous, because we had people in new positions. Before that, we were clicking on all cylinders when she was at the top of her game."

In the absence of Benvenuto, JMU shifted sophomore shooting guard Lesley Dickinson over from the wing to run the point, or brought in sophomore Shameena Felix off the bench.

"My responsibility was to get the ball up the court and into the offense," Dickinson said. "It’s about being the point man, leadership and being vocal. I tried to do what I could. But when there’s a change, the timing is going to be off and you try to work the kinks out in practice so during game time, when it counts, you do what you have to do."

Benvenuto returned from the stress fracture Jan. 16 against Drexel, only to be limited once more by health problems. They peaked two games later in the form of the flu when the Dukes hosted the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

"I threw up at halftime and I was getting really frustrated," Benvenuto said. "But that’s just something you’ve to got deal with. You’ve got to push through it. You’ve got to play through those situations. No one is ever going to be 100 percent when they’re out there on the court."

She still managed a season-high six assists against the Seahawks.

"We have so many great scorers on the team, that I don’t have to score, and I take pride in my ability to make a good pass that leads to them to scoring," Benvenuto said. "I feel if I do that and they finish, it’s good. That’s what is important to me."

Gradually, Benvenuto is getting back into the flow of the game, but it hasn’t been quick.

"The first game back, she was rusty and it’s been on-going process," Brooks said. "She has come back and a couple of setbacks. Her body isn’t used to playing again after not playing for four or five weeks."

Last year, Benvenuto was second in the CAA in assist-turnover ratio, with a mark of 1.38. She also finished third in total assists with 117, averaging 4.03 a game. It was the second highest of any freshman total behind Jess Cichowicz (1999-’03), who holds the school record of 131.

"[Benvenuto’s] the quarterback, she’s my voice on the floor," Brooks said. "I can relay a lot of messages I want to get across through her. Jess Cichowicz was great at that. She could look at me and she knew exactly what I wanted to do."

That chemistry is one that Brooks (a former point guard at JMU) and Benvenuto are working on.

"I’m very hard on her because she plays the same position I did," Brooks said. "I’ve talked to her so much that she’s probably tired of hearing it."

But it’s getting through.

"I felt that point guard connection," Benvenuto said. "You’ve got to have respect for the fellow point guard."