After a shootout win over Delaware this week, the Dukes looked to continue their hot shooting against conference leader William and Mary. The Tribe also came off a big win against Hofstra with senior point guard Marcus Thornton scoring 24 points. Early, it was clear that the Tribe was more ready to play and energized than the Dukes and hot shooting and lock down defense proved it. JMU struggled to get any open looks at the basket while W&M was hitting on all cylinders offensively. Marcus Thornton was a problem to guard as he would size up a Duke defender and hit a well contested three. No JMU player looked to be a threat in the first half and everyone seemed to be standing and watching, making it easy for the Tribe to defend. The Dukes really lacked any penetration to the rim in the first half which hurt its chances to find an open look.
A different JMU team showed up in the second half as they played more physical and came out with more energy. They drove to the basket which opened up shots for Jackson Kent and Winston Grays to stroke it from deep. The hole the Dukes dug themselves was ultimately to big and could never quite catch back up even though they were only outscored by two points in the second half.
The second half proved that the Dukes can play with William and Marry but their lack of consistency proved to be to much to overcome. William and Mary simply out played JMU in every aspect and we had no answer to their shooting.
Key Offensive Takeaways
A different JMU team showed up in the second half as they played more physical and came out with more energy. They drove to the basket which opened up shots for Jackson Kent and Winston Grays to stroke it from deep. The hole the Dukes dug themselves was ultimately to big and could never quite catch back up even though they were only outscored by two points in the second half.
The second half proved that the Dukes can play with William and Marry but their lack of consistency proved to be to much to overcome. William and Mary simply out played JMU in every aspect and we had no answer to their shooting.
Key Offensive Takeaways
- lack of penetration in the first half limited shot selection: the Dukes went from 30% shooting in the first half to 60% in the second half from three
- carelessness with the ball lead to 19 turnovers and 23 points for the Tribe
- once again, the Dukes were standing and watching on the perimeter not even thinking about cutting or driving to the basket in the first half.
- the second half proved that if we can penetrate and spread out the defense we can get open looks from our shooters
- our defense could not keep up with the slashing and cutting of the Tribe's offense: we allowed 36 points in the paint which signifies how we gave them easy looks and they didn't have to earn them
- the Tribe shot over 60% from the field: anytime we made a run to cut the lead they answered it by continuously making shot after shot
- W&M guards beat us off the dribble nearly every possession which lead to easy layups or bail out fouls by our big men
- we had spurts of high energy defense but it lacked consistency throughout the game and the Tribe took advantage of our sluggishness.