JMU Trips Up Radford, 67-63
January 26, 2010 • By Dan Lobdell, The Breeze
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HARRISONBURG, Va. — For the second time in as many home games, the JMU men’s basketball team played a closely contested game against an in-state rival. This time, however, it came out on top.
The Dukes won thanks to an intentional foul in the backcourt with 16 seconds remaining. After Radford guard Amir Johnson hit a game-tying 3-pointer, his teammate Gorken Sonmez knocked Madison guard Pierre Curtis to the ground off the inbounds pass. Curtis, who was battling a stomach virus, made both free throws to ice the game.
“He didn’t think he fouled necessarily, but he certainly was being very aggressive on a player about 90 feet from the basket,” Radford coach Brad Greenberg said. “I’m not sure if he knew the score or not. I’m not sure if he knew it was tied or thought we still needed another possession.”
Prior to that, JMU had gone on a 16-3 run to take an 8-point lead with 49 seconds left in the game. Sophomore swingman Julius Wells started the run with consecutive 3s and freshman guard Darren White gave the Dukes the lead with a dunk off an outlet pass with just more than 3 ½ minutes left.
The Highlanders answered with a Blake Smith 3-pointer, but their next three possessions sealed their fate.
Smith’s turnover on the following possession led to a Denzel Bowles’ bucket, then Lazar Trifunovic bounced it off his teammate’s foot on the baseline. Madison guard Ben Louis corralled a missed 3-pointer from Wells and immediately found White on the wing to give the Dukes a 4-point lead.
Radford’s Joey Lynch-Flohr turned the ball over in the Highlander’s next trip down court, resulting in another Bowles’ jumper. Lynch-Flohr would foul out on JMU’s next possession, giving White what would prove to be the clinching free throws.
“Joey Lynch is a much better player than he played tonight,” JMU coach Matt Brady said. “He’s really a guy that can make shots all over the court. I just think he had one of those forgettable games.”
The Highlanders stormed back as Johnson answered with a 3-pointer and Sonmez made a lay-up off a Wells’ turnover. Then with 17 ticks left on the clock, Louis left Johnson open for the game-tying three.
“That seems to be the trademark of this group,” Brady said. “We can play really hard for stretches, and then we play not so smart for other stretches.”
Despite the fact that the Highlanders entered tonight’s game tied for the third in the country in rebounds-per-game, JMU outrebounded Radford 47-39. Bowles led the Dukes with the 15 boards.
“The last couple games, [Bowles] has been much more focused and much more cognizant of putting effort in, especially the defensive end of the court,” Brady said. “And he was really good. 15 rebounds, he took really good shots, obviously threw the ball a couple times to teammates for open plays.”
White led the Dukes with 18 points, while Bowles added 17. The junior big man said he relished the opportunity to play against Radford senior Artsiom Parakhouski, who was fourth in the nation in scoring and second in rebounding last season.
“I saw him on TV against the big schools, like Kansas and stuff,” Bowles said of the 6-foot-11-inch Belarusian. “He was killing them, so I just wanted to play against him and see if he’s really that good.”
The loss snapped a 4-game losing streak for Madison (9-11 overall, 2-7 in Colonial Athletic Association) heading into Wednesday night’s showdown against William & Mary at the Convocation Center. The Tribe is 1-2 since beating JMU 85-78 on Jan. 14.
“Even though we got down, they never looked down; they never had the deer in the headlights look,” JMU’s second-year coach said. “Everybody I thought came off the bench and gave us production and positive minutes. And now we will see if they can do that two games in a row.”
contact Dan Lobdell at sweetlifebrah@gmail.com
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