Men's Hoops Tops Florida Atlantic at Home

Tuesday, January 5

Harrisonburg, Va.

4 p.m.

James Madison University

4-4,0-0CAA

FAU

-54,00 CUSA

Fla. Atlantic

James Madison

1/5/2021 8:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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HARRISONBURG, Va. - Senior Matt Lewis and freshman Justin Amadi powered a second-half offensive explosion on Tuesday night, lifting James Madison to a hard-fought 79-70 win over Florida Atlantic in non-conference men's basketball at the Atlantic Union Bank Center.

The Dukes (4-4) never trailed, hitting a staggering 16 of their 20 shots (80%) from the field after halftime on their way to the win, turning things around from a cold opening period that saw them take a 29-25 lead by holding FAU (5-4) to 33.3% (10-of-30) shooting on field goals.

Amadi continued his strong run, hitting all seven of his shots from the field on his way to a career-high 17 points - his second straight double-digit effort - that included 13 in the second half and multiple highlight-reel plays down the stretch.

Lewis added 19 points of his own, adding five boards, five assists and three steals while committing just a pair of turnovers in 35 minutes.

After taking a four-point lead into the break, the Dukes charged out of halftime with an 11-2 run that gave them a 40-27 lead. The teams went back and forth for much of the half before JMU turned a 52-42 lead into a 65-44 advantage, with Amadi providing the final five points of the run himself.

FAU caught fire from deep to cut the lead to as few as seven, but Lewis took over for three straight possessions, getting a spinning layup out of the under-4 media timeout, then hitting a three-pointer and finding Amadi for an alley-oop to push the lead back to 76-65 with 2:13 to play and put things out of reach.

QUOTING COACH BYINGTON
"The easy thing to say is it's a nice win, but there were a lot of things that happened before that to make that win possible. There were certain times that we played at an unbelievable level on defense and then, the second half, our offense was really good. I feel like we're building and we're getting better every game - we just need to keep moving that direction."

😳 😳 😳 😳

Frame it and hang it on the wall, Justin Amadi!#GoDukes pic.twitter.com/TeGihCbuX1
— JMU Men's Basketball (@JMUMBasketball) January 5, 2021

QUICK HITS
- Tuesday marked the second time in three games in which the Dukes have scored 50 points in the second half after doing the same at VCU on Dec. 22.
- Sophomore Julien Wooden and junior Vado Morse added 12 and 10 points, respectively.
- The Dukes' starting five on Tuesday was their fifth starting lineup of the season.
- Tuesday evening was the second time this year that the Dukes have never trailed and the first against a Division I opponent.

UP NEXT
The Dukes will open their 2020-21 Colonial Athletic Association schedule this weekend, welcoming Elon to the Atlantic Union Bank Center for a pair of games on Saturday and Sunday, Jan. 9-10. Entering the week, the Phoenix are 3-3 (0-2 CAA) after opening their own league slate with two losses at Northeastern last week.