Morse, Men's Hoops Battle to Win over Charleston

Saturday, January 22

Harrisonburg, Va.

4 p.m.

James Madison University

12-5,3-3CAA

College of Charleston

9-8,1-4CAA

Col. of Charleston

James Madison

1/22/2022 9:02:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score Photo Gallery

HARRISONBURG, Va. - Redshirt junior guard Vado Morse erupted for 32 points on Saturday evening, leading James Madison to a hard-fought 95-94 win over College of Charleston in men's basketball action at the Atlantic Union Bank Center.

The Dukes (12-5, 3-3) fought back from separate deficits of 11 and eight, bouncing back from a slow start to score 85 points in the final 32 minutes and force 20 turnovers out of Charleston (9-8, 1-4) to pick up the crucial win at home.

Morse filled it up early and often, scoring 21 points in the first half, with the help of four three-pointers, then adding seven points in the final 2:22 to help the Dukes see off the victory.

The performance, his collegiate high and most by any JMU player since Matt Lewis racked up 33 at Elon on Jan. 25, 2020, paced five JMU players in double figures.

Redshirt freshman Justin Amadi continued his strong play on both ends by tallying 16 points, eight rebounds and four steals across 31 minutes of turnover-free ball.

Graduate students Charles Falden and Takal Molson added 13 and 12 points, respectively, while redshirt freshman Terrence Edwards stuffed the stat sheet with 10 points, seven rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block.

Freshman guard Reyne Smith hit six three-pointers on his way to 21 points to lead the Cougars.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
Charleston leapt out to an early lead, scoring the first seven points and pushing the advantage to as much as 19-8, but the Dukes immediately responded with an 11-3 run that cut things back to three points and into single digits for the last time.

Neither team would lead by more than seven for the rest of the half, as the teams traded three-pointers down the stretch before JMU scored the last eight points of the period to take a 48-45 lead into the break.

Second Half
The Cougars again started strong, using an early 13-2 run to go back up 60-54 with 14:37 to play. Things would stay like that, with Charleston pushing the advantage to as many as eight at the 9:53 mark. Immediately after that, however, JMU ripped off 10 straight points, then expanded its run to 14-2 and 18-4 to take the lead for the final time and go up, 83-77.

In the final four minutes, Charleston chipped away at the lead, cutting the gap to 89-88 with 22 seconds to play. However, the Dukes were a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw stripe from there on and took advantage of two Cougar misses to close out the win.

QUICK HITS
- The Dukes went 31-of-36 from the free throw line, their most made free throws since Nov. 27, 2010 in a matchup against Eastern Michigan.
- The victory was the Dukes' fifth double-digit comeback win of the year and their eighth win by five or fewer points - both were last done with such frequency in 2012-13.
- JMU racked up 14 steals on the night, the ninth time this year that the Dukes have grabbed 10 or more.

UP NEXT
The Dukes will stay at home for another weekend, starting with a matchup against Drexel on Thursday, Jan. 27 at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the Dragons dropped an 83-75 decision to William & Mary at home to fall to 8-8 (3-3) on the season.