Game Story; JMU 72, Towson 61

Friday, March 7

Richmond, Va.

TBA

James Madison University

13-16

Towson

4-24

Towson

James Madison

3/7/2003 3:17:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

RICHMOND, Va. (3/7/2003) – Dwayne Broyles led a balanced JMU attack with 14 points, and the Dukes blocked a team-record 13 shots while defeating Towson 72-61 in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament at the Richmond Coliseum.

The Dukes gave up the first field goal of the game but outscored the 10th-seeded Tigers 21-2 over the next 13 minutes to lead 21-4 with 6:29 left in the opening half. JMU led 29-15 at halftime and 45-23 just more than five minutes into the final half. Towson's first-half scoring output was the lowest by a Dukes opponent during the 2002-03 season. JMU had limited the Tigers to 21 first-half points during a 64-51 victory at Towson during early January.

JMU hit on 13 of 33 first-half shots (39 percent) to only six of 27 by Towson (22 percent). Towson had 15 first-half turnovers, and JMU had eight blocked shots by intermission.

Broyles hit on six of 13 shots and had six rebounds and four assists. Ten players scored for the seventh-seeded Dukes, who also got 12 points and five rebounds from Ian Caskill, 11 points from David Fanning, nine points and three rebounds from Wes Miller, and eight points and four rebounds from Pat Mitchell. Caskill had four blocked shots, and was among six JMU players credited with blocks. Miller hit on four straight free throws during the game's final 1:06, and Chris Williams contributed seven assists for the Dukes.

JMU twice previously had 12 blocked shots in a game – in 1998 in a 51-46 win at Old Dominion and in a 61-59 home win over American in 1990. Barry Brown had an individual JMU game record 11 blocks during the 1990 win over American, and Steve Hood's three-pointer at the final horn gave the Dukes the victory.

Gerald Weatherspoon with a career-high 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting was the only double-figure scorer for 10th-seeded Towson. He hit on four of six shots from three-point range. Weatherspoon had 23 second-half points and helped the Tigers get as close as eight points before JMU hit on five of six free throws during the final 31 seconds.

Towson shot 55 percent (18-33) during the second half and 40 percent overall (24-60). JMU finished with a 43 percent shooting mark (27-63).