Game Story; Howard 68, JMU 65

Wednesday, December 22

Home

TBA

James Madison University

2-6

Howard

4-5

Howard

James Madison

12/22/2004 12:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va. (12/22/2004) – Howard turned back a second-half JMU surge and defeated the Dukes 68-65 in their final pre-holiday game.

JMU scored the first 10 points of the second half to erase a 40-30 deficit and took its first lead of the half when John Naparlo's three-pointer with 10:20 remaining broke a 49-49 tie. Howard regained the lead, 59-57, on a Cliffone Ault field goal with 6:27 to play.

JMU's Ray Barbosa hit on a three-pointer to tie the score for a final time, 62-62, with 4:18 to play. Jason Trotter's layup broke the tie and Darryl Hudson added two free throws to give the visitors a 66-62 advantage.

Jomo Belfor's three-point play pulled the Dukes to within 66-65 with 45 seconds remaining, but Howard's Louis Ford hit on two free throws with 16.7 seconds to play. The Dukes then missed on two off-balanced three-point attempts, the first by Barbosa, and Belfor followed with a second attempt after Naparlo tracked down the rebound.

Ault led all scorers with 23 points. He hit on eight of 28 shots, including four of 14 from three-point range. Hudson had 13 points and Ford 12 points and five assists.

The Dukes, who committed 19 turnovers while forcing the Bison into only six, got 13 points from Barbosa and 12 each from Cavell Johnson and Chris Cathlin. Cathlin led all players with nine rebounds, and his scoring and rebounding totals were season highs.

JMU shot a season-best 53.2 percent (25-47) from the field.