Game Story; JMU 68, Furman 66

Friday, November 22

Greenville, S.C.

TBA

James Madison University

1-0

Furman

1-2

JMU

Furman

11/22/2002 2:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

GREENVILLE, S.C. (11/22/2002) – Colonial Athletic Association player of the week David Fanning scored 12 of his team-high 22 points during the final 9:02, and JMU held on for a 68-66 season-opening win over Furman.

Furman pulled into a 50-50 tie with 9:53 left after trailing 40-18 late during in the first half, but Fanning's three-pointer with 9:02 to play put JMU in front to stay 53-50. The senior guard later scored seven of JMU's final nine points, and he also had a team-high four assists in 37 minutes.

Kenny Whitehead's two free throws with 17.1 seconds left gave JMU its final points and a 68-64 lead, but Furman got a field goal with 7.2 seconds left and regained possession with 6.5 seconds remaining when Whitehead missed on a free throw. JMU knocked the ball out of bounds under the Furman basket with 0.3 seconds left, and a Paladin tip attempt at the final horn off a lob pass failed.

The victory marked the first time in JMU's 34-year NCAA varsity men's basketball history that the Dukes opened the season with a victory on an opponent's home floor. Before the Furman game, JMU had been 0-11 in season-openers on opponents' home floors. The Dukes were starting a season on an opponent's floor for only the fifth time since 1985-86.

Supporting Fanning for JMU were Ian Caskill with a career-high 17 points and 11 rebounds, Chris Williams with 11 points and Whitehead with 10 points, four rebounds and career highs of seven blocked shots and three assists. Caskill hit on eight of 13 shots.

JMU scored the first 10 points and led 40-18 on Fanning's fastbreak layup with 2:20 left in the first half. The Dukes shot 54.8 percent (17-31) during the first half, but Furman got 10 points during the period's final 1:55 to close to within 40-28 and outscored JMU 22-10 during the first 10:07 of the final half.

JMU shot 49.1 percent (28-57), and Furman shot 41.9 percent for the game (26-62) after hitting on but nine of 27 shots (33.3 percent) during the first half.

Furman got a game-high 25 points from guard Karim Souchu and had a 41-33 rebounding advantage. Souchu hit on nine of 16 shots and had four rebounds.