No. 23 JMU Rolls To 80-64 Win Over Pittsburgh

Sunday, November 23

Harrisonburg, Va.

2 p.m.

James Madison University

4-0

Pittsburgh

2-2

Pittsburgh

James Madison

11/23/2014 5:23:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va. – Behind the career highs of three Dukes, the No. 23 James Madison women's basketball team moved to 4-0 on the young season with an 80-64 victory over Pittsburgh (2-2) at the JMU Convocation Center on Sunday afternoon. The win marked the Dukes 13th consecutive on their home court.

Junior guard Precious Hall (Tallahassee, Fla./Maclay School) posted a career-high 34 points in in the contest, which marks the second time in four games this season she has scored 25-plus points in a contest. She opened the season with 25 points against then-No. 23 UCLA.

Junior guard Angela Mickens (Staunton, Va./Robert E. Lee) posted a double-double with 12 points and 13 assists, both of which were career bests. She put the finishing touch on the double-double in the closing minutes when she hit a layup and was fouled in the process. The junior missed a triple-double by two rebounds after finishing with eight boards.

Redshirt-senior center Lauren Okafor (Hamden, Conn./Hopkins School) also finished with a double-double, dropping in 15 points alongside a career-high 19 rebounds, her fourth consecutive double-digit rebounding performance. She pulled down eight of her 19 boards on the offensive end.

Okafor is just the 11th player in JMU history to have 19 or more rebounds in a single game.

Overall, JMU outrebounded Pitt 52-30, including a 20-9 advantage on the offensive glass. Offensively, the Dukes shot 44.3 percent from the floor with a 54.5 percent clip from beyond the arc. The Panthers made 40.0 percent of their attempts from the field with a 23.5 percent average from long range.

Hall's game-high 34 points powered the Dukes while Okafor's 15 points and Mickens' 12 points rounded out the double-figure scoring for JMU. Pittsburgh's Brianna Kiesel and Cora McManus were the only two Panthers to score in double figures, as Kiesel put up a team-high 25 points while McManus scored 10 off the bench. Fourteen of Kiesel's 25 points came after halftime.

Though Pittsburgh jumped out to an early lead with a four-point play on the first possession of the game, JMU rattled off six straight points to take its first lead of the afternoon. After a made three-pointer from Stasha Carey to take a 9-8 lead, a jumper from redshirt-junior guard Jazmon Gwathmey (Bealeton, Va./Liberty) put the Dukes ahead for good at 10-9 with 15:01 to play in the first half.

Madison steadily extended its lead throughout the first stanza and went up by double digits for the first time with 2:59 to play before halftime on a layup from Okafor.

Up 41-33 at halftime, JMU opened the second half on a 10-2 run to extend its lead to 16 (51-35). JMU's largest lead of the afternoon came after a Gwathmey three-pointer with 6:23 to play in the game to move the Dukes out to a 24-point lead at 71-47.

Madison continues its season Friday, Nov. 28, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, against 10th-ranked Maryland in the San Juan Shootout. The following day, JMU faces Houston to close out the tournament.