Men's Hoops Comes Up Just Short at No. 3 Virginia

Tuesday, December 6

Charlottesville, Va.

8 p.m.

James Madison University

7-3,0-0Sun Belt

Virginia

8-0,1-0ACC

James Madison

Virginia

12/6/2022 11:32:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - James Madison men's basketball battled back from multiple second-half deficits on Tuesday night, but fell just short in a hard-fought 55-50 loss to No. 3 Virginia at the John Paul Jones Arena.

The Dukes (7-3) erased Virginia's (8-0) 11-point first-half lead with a second-half flurry and owned a 41-33 rebounding advantage, but could not overcome a 27.3% (15-55) shooting performance against a stout Cavalier defense.

Graduate student Takal Molson paced JMU on the evening, scoring 20 points for the second time this season in a performance that included 18 points and five rebounds in the second half alone.

Senior Vado Morse added 11 points of his own, while six different players picked up at least five rebounds in the contest.

Virginia guard Kihei Clark and forward Jaylin Gardner led the way for the Cavaliers, with Clark scoring a team-best 18 points to go with seven assists, while Gardner notched 14 points and eight boards on the evening.

HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
The two teams traded baskets in the opening minutes, with JMU taking an 8-7 lead at the 16:01 mark on a three-pointer from Morse, but Virginia responded with six straight points as they held the Dukes scoreless for nearly six minutes.

Virginia would later use a 7-0 run in front of a raucous crowd to push their advantage to 24-13 - their largest lead of the game - but JMU closed the half with baskets from Terrence Edwards and Justin Amadi to head to the break trailing 27-20.

Second Half
The Dukes came out of the second half with momentum still in hand, quickly trimming the deficit to 33-30 as Molson scored eight points in the opening 4:07 of the period.

Virginia pushed the lead back to six, but would get no further, giving JMU the chance to tie the contest up at 42-42 with another Molson three-pointer at the 7:51 mark.

The Cavaliers responded with six straight points, but JMU again chipped away. Molson got back-to-back difficult layups to fall to pull the Dukes back to 52-50 with a minute to play, but JMU could not get its final attempts to fall as Virginia saw the contest out at 55-50.

QUICK HITS
- Junior guard Noah Freidel tallied three steals, his most in one game since arriving at JMU.
- Following Tuesday's contest, the Dukes have faced two teams ranked inside the Associated Press top five in one season for the first time since the 1981-82 campaign.

UP NEXT
The Dukes will return home on the weekend, welcoming Gallaudet to the Atlantic Union Bank Center for a 7 p.m. matchup on Saturday, Dec. 10. Single-game and season tickets are still available at JMUTickets.com.