Dukes Claim Eighth Straight in 73-53 Win over Mount St. Mary's

Tuesday, December 22

Harrisonburg, Va.

7 p.m.

James Madison University

10-3

Mount St. Mary's

3-9

Mount St. Mary's

James Madison

Dukes Claim Eighth Straight in 73-53 Win over Mount St. Mary's

12/22/2015 10:25:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va. - Five players scored in double figures for the first time in more than a year as James Madison closed out its non-conference slate with a 73-53 win over Mount St. Mary's in men's basketball action on Tuesday evening at the JMU Convocation Center.

The victory, which lifted the Dukes to 10-3 as they head into Colonial Athletic Association play, marked the eighth in a row for JMU, its longest win streak since winning nine straight during the 2010-11 season and just four shy of the program record of 12, set during the 1989-90 campaign. The Mountaineers fell to 3-9 with the loss.

Junior forward Dimitrije Cabarkapa led the way on offense for the Dukes, posting his first career double-double with 15 points and a career-high 13 rebounds. The Novi Sad, Serbia, native has now made at least one three-pointer in 21 straight games after going 3-for-5 from beyond the arc in a 6-for-10 performance from the field.

Senior guard Ron Curry turned in his fifth straight double-digit performance with 13 points, while junior guard Shakir Brown picked up 13 of his own. Junior forward Yohanny Dalembert and senior guard Winston Grays III each added 10 as five Dukes found double figures for the first time since a 63-61 win over Campbell on Dec. 2, 2014.

After entering halftime with a 29-20 lead, the Dukes found their shooting rhythm in the second half, going 13-for-22 (59.1%) from the field and 6-for-10 (60%) from behind the arc to open the lead up to as many as 31 late in the period.

JMU also turned another stellar defensive performance, holding the Mountaineers to a 31.1% clip (19-for-61) from the field, marking the fourth time in five games that the Dukes have held and opponent under 35% from the field.

Charles Glover paced The Mount on the evening, scoring a game-high 17 points, while Gregory Graves joined him in double figures with 14 points and a team-high seven boards.

QUOTING COACH BRADY - COMPLETE BRADY POSTGAME - COMPLETE PLAYERS POSTGAME
"We're really grateful to get the win. I thought we played a team that was really, really scrappy, that made us turn over the ball over 24 times and just made every possession really difficult. We were fortunate to get separation in the second half. I said to my team that we just had to keep fighting because we're playing a team that's played BCS-level teams, where every halftime score has been really close."

TWEET OF THE GAME

8-game win streak for @JMUMBasketball is 6th-longest active streak in country & 10th-longest all season in college hoops
— Kevin Warner (@KevinAWarner) December 23, 2015

CLIMBING THE RECORD BOOKS
Senior guard Ron Curry scored 13 points on Tuesday evening, giving him 1,204 points in his four-year career. That total ranks 19th all-time at JMU, with Curry's effort against Mount St. Mary's moving him past the 1,203 points of Andrey Semenov (2008-14) and leaving him just 33 points shy of Pierre Curtis (2006-10), who sits in 18th with 1,237.

PLAY OF THE GAME - COMPLETE HIGHLIGHTS

After Mount St. Mary's went on a 6-0 run to cut the Dukes lead to four, junior forward Dimitrije Cabarkapa drilled this transition three from the left corner to start a 17-2 JMU run that gave the Dukes a 47-28 lead and put the game out of reach.

DOMINANCE ON THE BOARDS
The Dukes rolled to a 45-24 rebounding advantage on Tuesday evening, marking the eighth consecutive game in which JMU has either bested or matched its opponent on the glass. JMU, which outrebounded the Mountaineers 24-12 in the second half, is now 9-0 when pulling down more boards than its opponent.

LOCKDOWN DEFENSE
The Dukes stifled The Mount on the defensive end, never allowing the Mountaineers to take the lead and yielding just a 25.9% (7-27) shooting percentage from the floor in the first half. JMU shut down the Mountaineer offense entirely on three seperate occasions, holding The Mount without a point for the first 6:47 of the contest. from the opening tip until the 13:13 mark, again for 6:29 later in the first half (10:10 to 3:41) and then one final time for a 7:06 stretch after haltime (17:44 to 10:38) that saw the Dukes score 12 straight points and extend their lead from 35-28 to 47-28.

PHOTO OF THE GAME - COMPLETE PHOTO GALLERY

Junior forward Paulius Satkus finishes off a steal by careening into the JMU bench to save an errant ball. Satkus' pass found junior guard Shakir Brown in the lane for a layup that gave the Dukes a 49-32 lead with just 9:13 to play.

AROUND THE CAA
The Colonial Athletic Association went 6-1 on Tuesday evening, with Delaware's 78-48 loss at No. 17 Villanova representing the only blemish. In addition to JMU's victory, Drexel, Hofstra, UNCW and Northeastern picked up home wins, while College of Charleston triumphed at Campbell.

UP NEXT
The Dukes will take a nine-day break for the holidays before kicking off their CAA slate with a 1 p.m. contest against College of Charleston on Dec. 31. The Cougars are 8-3 with a 3-2 mark on the road so far this season and closed out their non-conference schedule with an 86-68 win at Campbell on Tuesday evening.