Dukes bury Tribe

Junior guard Pierre Curtis scored 19 points to lead the seventh seeded Dukes of James Madison (19-13)  to a 70-48 victory over the 10th seeded Tribe of William and Mary (10-20) in game three of the opening round of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship. With the victory, the Dukes advanced to the CAA quarterfinals for the […]

March 6, 2009; 10:20 PM • by FTRea

Junior guard Pierre Curtis scored 19 points to lead the seventh seeded Dukes of James Madison (19-13)  to a 70-48 victory over the 10^th seeded Tribe of William and Mary (10-20) in game three of the opening round of the CAA Men’s Basketball Championship.

With the victory, the Dukes advanced to the CAA quarterfinals for the first time since 2003, ending a five-game tournament losing streak. JMU will meet second-seeded George Mason on Saturday at 6 p.m. in the quarterfinal round.

Curtis hit seven-of-eight shots from the floor and also grabbed a team-high six rebounds. Senior All-CAA forward Juwann James added 12 points off the bench to join Curtis in double-figures. All five JMU starters scored at least eight points in a balanced scoring attack. Junior forward Danny Sumner led the Tribe with 19 points and six rebounds.

William and Mary took a 20-17 lead on a three-pointer by junior forward Danny Sumner with 7:41 left in the first half. Senior guard Kyle Swanston tied the game at 20 with 6:21 to and freshman guard  Devon Moore’s jumper with 5:27 left gave the Dukes the for good. JMU closed the half on a 15-5 runs and led 32-25 at intermission.

In the second half the Dukes outscored the Tribe, 20-7 as they bolted out to a 52-32 lead with 10:55 left in the game. JMU shot 59 percent from the floor and hit 5-of-8 from 3-point range over the final 20 minutes, while the Tribe went 0-for-9 from beyond the arc in the second half and hit only 33% of its field goal attempts.

JMU dominated the boards, 39-28. For the game, the Dukes shot 53.8 percent (28-52) from the floor while the Tribe shot 35.2 percent (19-54), including 1-of-18 on threes.

– The information above was provided by Rob Washburn with the CAA

March 6, 2009 10:20 PM 0