UNC-Wilmington, VCU drop Dukes

Squandered opportunities leaves JMU reeling during two-game losing skid

Photo courtesy of JMU Photography JMU let another game slip away Sunday as VCU beat the Dukes, 77-67, in CAA action.

Coming off a big win against the University of Delaware, followed by a few days of good practices, one might have thought the Dukes would have ridden the momentum into last Thursday's game against the University of North Carolina-Wilmington.

At least, one might have thought.

Instead, JMU lost an early lead and blew several opportunities to come back en route to a 58-54 loss to the Seahawks — leaving the Dukes with another game that just slipped out of their reach.

"It's disappointing to lose a basketball game when you feel like you could have won," coach Kenny Brooks said. "But, it comes down to a few possessions — that's what the game led up to. But, when you look deeper than that, we just had opportunities that we squandered.

"We didn't come up with a loose ball, or get the ball where you want it and come up empty," Brooks added.

The Dukes' frustrations came in the paint, where Brooks said his team was 3-for-17 in shooting.

"I'm disappointed with the play of the post inside," he said. "I thought they should have done a much better job finishing inside."

JMU's struggles inside had freshman forward Meredith Alexis baffled as well.

"I don't know," she said. "We were getting the looks and we were getting the passes, but we couldn't finish. It was just one of those nights. It's unfortunate that all three of us (post players) were having an off night."

The Dukes (8-14, 3-8 in the conference) came out firing early, taking a 14-9 lead 10 minutes into the game. However, UNC-W battled back to take a 16-14 lead on a 3-pointer by Jennifer Kapper, and the Seahawks held onto a 25-23 lead at the half.

Red-shirt junior guard Mary Beth Culbertson, who had missed the previous five games with symptoms from a concussion, gave the Dukes a spark in the second half. Culbertson nailed a 3-pointer to tie the game at 37-37 with 11:45 left to play. After a Seahawk basket, Culbertson grabbed an offensive rebound and got a lay-up to tie the game again.

Brooks, who was watching Culbertson's minutes, said he had to take her out soon after her two big shots and, in turn, he said, the team lost some of the intensity it had when she was in the lineup.
JMU briefly regained the lead on a shot by Alexis, but Kapper responded with 6 points over the next minute and a half.
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he Dukes cut the lead to 1 point on several occasions, the final time with 2:23 left. Yet, missed opportunities down the stretch kept JMU away from the win.
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It was really frustrating," Alexis said. "There's no other way to put it.

"It's hard coming off such a great win Sunday and then coming out and playing flat with no enthusiasm, no nothing," Alexis added. "We don't know what's wrong, but we're going to figure it out. And if it takes us a day, if it takes us two weeks, we're going to figure it out. We're going to come out strong and we're going to play consistent."

One thing JMU couldn't figure out was how to stop Kapper, who finished with a game-high 26 points, including 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc. On many occasions, the Dukes couldn't rotate over in time to guard Kapper, who was left open outside.

"You can't let them get comfortable," Brooks said of the Seahawks. "I think we let Jennifer Kapper get extremely comfortable with her rhythm. We never stepped up and challenged her."