We couldn’t make it to JMU’s final regular-season home game Saturday against William and Mary, but we always plan on making at least one trip to Harrisonburg to experience some of the best game-day atmosphere around. So Sunday, we sat courtside at the Convo for the Dukes’ 67-56 victory over Delaware.
Our key takeaways:
— Given that JMU had lost a two-point, double-overtime heartbreaker at Drexel less than 41 hours before tipoff, we had “Dragons hangover” at the top of our list of things to look for when the game began.
Then Kelly Koshuta nailed a layup 15 seconds in, and Logan Reynolds followed with a pair of free throws within the opening minute.
We moved “Drexel hangover” down the list several spots.
A couple of minutes later, Lexie Barrier drilled back-to-back 3-pointers, energizing the crowd and forcing a Delaware timeout.
We scrubbed “Drexel hangover” off the list completely.
— We’d been doing a great job of laying off soda lately – no easy trick this time of year because basketball press rooms are usually full of the stuff. The first few days were kind of tough but after a while it wasn’t hard to turn down, regardless of brand.
Coke?
Nope.
Dew?.
Don’t.
Dr. Pepper?
Nein, danke.
Yeah, the resistance was robust…until we arrived at JMU and spotted the media room cooler fully stocked with row after row of ice-cold bottles of Cheerwine. (Thanks, Sammi Seaton.)
Damn you, Dukes.
— We’ve been calling Delaware star Nicole Enabosi the Colonial Athletic Association’s presumptive Player of the Year for a while now, and she showed why Sunday by racking up 26 points and 12 rebounds. That said, we’d argue the Dukes defense, with Tasia Butler leading the way, actually got the better of the matchup. Enabosi needed 20 shots to get the 26 points, and JMU appeared to wear her down by the fourth quarter. After playing every minute of the first three quarters, Enabosi was subbed out twice in the fourth – despite having just two fouls – and got her only field goal of the final frame on a meaningless layup with 11 seconds remaining and Delaware down 13.
They said it:
“They’ve got JMU in their blood.” – Dukes coach Sean O’Regan, on his players’ collective belief that, no matter the opponent or situation, they’ll always find a way to come out winners.
“Kelly’s a beast!” – Butler on the offensively gifted Koshuta, who finished with 16 points but appeared on her way to a 20-25-point day until foul issues set in.
Once upon a time, referencing a women’s basketball player in this way could earn a sportswriter a trip to Human Resources. It’s cool we’ve reached a point where everyone now accepts this term for what it is – high praise for any post player.
— Pivotal sequence – With 1:54 remaining in the second quarter and the Dukes trailing 27-26, Reynolds penetrated, absorbed contact and flipped up a shot that teased its way around the rim before seemingly heading out. Now, to this point the rim had been spitting out good-looking JMU shots with such regularity we thought this iron may have been imported from Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center. Well, maybe the evil rim realized it owed JMU one. Because this time, Reynolds’ shot somehow hooked back and dropped through. Honestly, it was as though the rim reached outsnatched it through the cylinder. Even Reynolds couldn’t explain how her shot went down.
So we’re sticking with our rim theory.
— That play – and a subsequent free throw – triggered a half-closing 9-2 surge by the Dukes, a run that included a Reynolds’ steal and the point guard’s sweet feed to a cutting Aneah Young for an and-one layup.
We’d call it “Logan’s Run” except we doubt most millenials would get the reference.
— Another play that really stuck with us came with 6:39 left in the third quarter when Cooper-Williams channeled the great Bill Russell and blocked an Abby Gonzales layup attempt right into the hands of Kamiah Smalls. Smalls promptly dribbled past two defenders for a fastbreak layup.
Oooooh…Yes, that’s good. pic.twitter.com/v9rolnFV6Z
— JMU Dukes WBB (@JMUWBasketball) February 25, 2018
Now, comparing Cooper-Williams to Russell is unfair – after all, Russell is 84 years old. But back in his prime, the Celtics legend mastered the art of using the blocked shot to trigger Boston’s lethal fastbreak. Thanks to center Kayla Cooper-Williams, the Dukes have this blocked-shot-as-outlet-pass in their arsenal, too.
— If we could fuse the offensive talents of Kelly Koshuta and the defensive chops of Cooper-Williams into one hooper, what would we be dealing with? The female Anthony Davis, right?
— Speaking of Koshuta, one word describes her pre-game makeup – flawless.
— That word also applies to the British accent Dukes center Debra Ferguson can break into. In fact, it’s so good we now refer to her as Dutchess Ferguson.
— No Dukes game is complete without the hysterical hijinks and jumpin’ jams from the JMU Pep Band, which closed the show with a stirring rendition of Prince’s “Purple Rain.”
Or was it “Purple Reign?”
— Also, nice purple bullseye, guys. It’s the ideal distraction when the opponent is at the charity stripe.
— Finally, Sunday’s game marked the last JMU dance for assistant director for athletic communications Devon Howard, who is leaving the Dukes for a new opportunity in Raleigh, N.C.
Howard’s departure is a loss on several fronts. JMU is losing an ace point person for women’s basketball news, right as we enter the business end of the campaign. The scorer’s table is losing a dazzling head of red hair. And we media types are losing a pleasant soul who tried her best to make our jobs easier – all while we were making hers harder.
So as you box up your purple-and-gold gear, we humbly offer these two words:
Don’t go!
Best of luck, D-How. And we have no doubt you’ll be a winner in your new situation.
After all, you too have JMU in your blood.