Men's Basketball Sprints Past Towson at Home

Wednesday, January 27

Harrisonburg, Va.

4 p.m.

James Madison University

8-5,3-1CAA

Towson

3-8,2-4CAA

Towson

James Madison

1/27/2021 7:52:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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HARRISONBURG, Va. - James Madison used a handful of lengthy runs and strong defense to cruise to a 78-63 win over Towson in Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball action at the Atlantic Union Bank Center on Wednesday afternoon.

The Dukes (8-5, 3-1 CAA) hit 45.6% (26-of-57) from the field, but used separate runs of 17-0 and 12-0 in the first half, as well as a 9-0 spurt in the second half, to bounce back from a slow start and put Towson (3-8, 2-4 CAA) in a hole it could not dig out of.

Senior guard Matt Lewis racked up 23 points on the day, including 16 in the second half, with the help of a 5-of-9 performance from the three-point line, while junior guard Vado Morse continued his torrid scoring with 19 points of his own.

Freshman guard Terell Strickland broke into double-digit scoring for the first time in his career, tallying 11 points to go with three boards and a steal on the afternoon.

After Towson raced out to a 13-2 lead and the Dukes called a timeout, JMU immediately ripped off the next 17 points to take a 19-13 advantage, one they would not relinquish the rest of the way.

The Tigers would trim the deficit to four with 7:12 to play before halftime, but the Dukes' ensuing 12-0 run would put the lead into double digits for the remainder of the contest. Towson would only ever close to as few as 12 points in the second half.

Jason Gibson went 6-of-11 from the field and 8-of-8 from the free throw line to lead Towson with 23 points.

QUOTING COACH BYINGTON
"I'm happy with the win today. Obviously, it was a poor start and we weren't quite locked in to start the game, but I was happy with the guys after we kind of reset. We put it on cruise control a little bit in the second half and I didn't like seeing that, but we have some things to work on and I'm happy to have gotten a win today on top of that."

✅ 3-1 in @CAABasketball
➡️ 6-2 in the new home
💪 40-37 edge on the boards

Great team win on Wednesday!#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/sneTimkNUq
— JMU Men's Basketball (@JMUMBasketball) January 28, 2021

QUICK HITS
- With his five three-pointers on Wednesday, Matt Lewis has now made at least one in 50 consecutive contests, the longest streak in Division I and just nine games short of cracking the all-time Division I top 10.
- Senior forward Zach Jacobs tallied six points and a season-high eight boards in a big 18 minutes off the bench, notching a team-best +21 in his time on the court.
- JMU is now 3-1 in CAA play for the first time since winning its first three league contests in the 2016-17 campaign.
- Lewis now has 233 career three-pointers, just four behind Darren McLinton (1992-96) for third all-time at JMU.

UP NEXT
The Dukes are next scheduled to play a week from Wednesday, welcoming Elon to Harrisonburg for a midweek bout originally for the weekend of Jan. 9-10 prior to a positive CoVID-19 in the Elon program.

Entering their matchups at Delaware this weekend, the Phoenix are 3-3 (0-2 CAA), having dropped a pair of games at Northeastern on Jan. 2-3 prior to their pause in activities.