JMU Dumps Delaware 75-50 for 20th Win of the Season

Saturday, February 20

Harrisonburg, Va.

4 p.m.

James Madison University

20-9, 10-6CAA

Delaware

7-20, 2-14CAA

Delaware

James Madison

2/20/2016 7:01:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va. – James Madison had four double-figure scorers and led Delaware wire-to-wire to earn a 75-50 Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball victory on Saturday afternoon at the JMU Convocation Center in front of a season-high 5,522 fans.

The Dukes improved to 20-9 overall and 10-6 in CAA play while the Blue Hens dropped to 7-20 and 2-14. The win placed JMU in a three-way tie for third place in the conference standings with Towson, which beat Elon, and William & Mary, which fell to Drexel.

Senior guard Ron Curry scored a game-high 17 points to go with six rebounds and three assists, while sophomore guard Joey McLean contributed 14 points and a pair of dimes. Two other Dukes scored 10 points off the bench as sophomore forward Paulius Satkus was a rebound shy of a double-double with nine boards while junior guard Shakir Brown had seven rebounds and a game-high three steals.

Despite being held to just 35.1% shooting (20-57), the Dukes knocked down 28 free throws, shooting 73.7% (28-38) from the stripe, while the Blue Hens shot 39.1% (18-46) for the game, including 28.6% (4-14) from the three-point line and just 43.5% (10-23) from the free throw line.

JMU held a 45-37 advantage in the rebounding battle, including a 12-5 advantage on the offensive glass, to outscore the Hens 15-4 on second-chance opportunities. The Dukes also outscored UD 26-18 in the paint, 16-9 off turnovers and 9-2 in transition. Delaware was paced by Anthony Mosley and Cazmon Hayes, who both scored 11 points, while Marvin King-Davis added 10.

The Dukes jumped out to an early lead, as a Curry 3-pointer sparked a 7-0 run over 58 seconds to give the Dukes a 13-4 lead with 15 minutes remaining. Delaware trimmed the deficit back to three at 19-16 but Curry's second trey of the game with 7:40 left in the half opened another run for the Dukes, this time a 12-0 run, to give JMU a 31-16 advantage with 4:10 to go. The Dukes would take a 37-23 lead into the break.

Leading 41-27, back-to-back 3-pointers by Brown and junior guard Jackson Kent pushed the lead to 20 at 47-27 with 16:27 to play. The Blue Hens never drew closer than 18 the rest of the way as JMU's lead reached as high as 27 points late in the contest.

QUOTING COACH BRADY - COMPLETE BRADY POSTGAME - COMPLETE PLAYERS POSTGAME
"I thought we did a good job of closing the door of them early. I thought we did it with a really good defensive mindset and we did a great job on their best two players...our guys did a really good job of bouncing back from that last game."

TWEET OF THE GAME

Teams are all winning today! Go @JMUSports! #AllWeDoIsWin #Dukes #JMUContest https://t.co/izVeq4FCiG
— Carol Benassi (@cabdallas) February 21, 2016

CONTROL THE BOARDS, WIN THE GAME
JMU improved to 15-2 this season when controlling the rebounding battle, which the Dukes won 45-37 on Saturday. They also moved to 16-2 in 2015-16 when leading at half, as they were ahead 37-23 at the break.

BRADY FASTEST TO FOURTH 20-WIN CAMPAIGN
Head Coach Matt Brady won his 20th game of the season for the fourth time in his eight-year tenure at JMU. He became third coach in program history to win 20 games four times, joining Lefty Driesell and Lou Campanelli as the lone coaches to achieve the feat. Driesell did it in six seasons while Campanelli did it in 11.

PLAY OF THE GAME - COMPLETE HIGHLIGHTS

Shakir Brown with a steal and dunk on the breakaway

CLAMPING DOWN ON DEFENSE
The Dukes forced the Blue Hens into 18 turnovers on Saturday, a season-best for the JMU defense. Ten of the 18 takeaways were steals, also a season high, and the last time the Dukes reached double-digit steals came back on Feb. 10, 2015 – also against Delaware.

CURRY NEARS 1,500-POINT PLATEAU
With Ron Curry's 17-point performance Saturday, he now has 1,489 career points as a Duke. He is just 11 points shy of becoming JMU's sixth-ever 1,500-point scorer and he needs just 16 points to tie William Davis (1988-93) for fifth place on the all-time scoring list at 1,505 points.

PHOTO OF THE GAME - COMPLETE PHOTO GALLERY

CONSISTENCY IN REGULAR SEASON
With Saturday's win over Delaware, JMU guaranteed it cannot lose three straight games in the regular season for the first time in 16 years, as the last time no three-game skid occurred was the 1999-2000 season.

AROUND THE CAA
With the win, JMU moved into a tie for third place in the league with a 10-6 record, joining Towson, which earned a 67-56 win over Elon, and William & Mary, which fell to Drexel, 74-69. The Dukes face off against both teams this coming week in their final two contests of the regular season.

NEXT UP
The Dukes return to action on Thursday, Feb. 25 when they travel up to Towson for an 8 p.m. contest that will be televised on Comcast SportsNet.