CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament

James Madison downs Mount St. Mary's, 69-58, in first round of the CIT

March 18, 2009

Box Score

JMU earns first postseason win since 1983.

HARRISONBURG, Va., March 18, 2009 – Freshman guard Devon Moore (Columbus, Ohio/Northland) scored a career-high 21 points and junior guard Pierre Curtis (Denver, Colo./East) and freshman forward Julius Wells (Toledo, Ohio/Libbey) each added 17 to lead James Madison’s men’s basketball team to 69-58 victory over Mount St. Mary’s in first-round play in the inaugural CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament Wednesday at the JMU Convocation Center.

JMU closed the game with a 23-12 scoring run after the teams were tied at 46-46 with 11 minutes to play and advanced to the 16-team tournament’s second round. The Dukes will play Monday with their opponent and playing site to be determined.

Wednesday’s victory raised JMU’s season record to 20-14 while Mount St. Mary’s fell to 19-14.

The 20-win season is the Dukes’ first since JMU’s 1999-2000 team finished 20-9. JMU has won 20 games or more 11 times beginning with the 1973-74 season.

Moore, who surpassed his previous JMU scoring high of 18 points, put JMU in front to stay 48-46 with a driving shot with 9:45 left in the game. Curtis scored the Dukes’ next six points for a 54-46 JMU advantage with 8:31 remaining and added another field goal at 5:29 after Mount St. Mary’s rallied to within 54-52.

A free throw by sophomore forward Shawn Atupem (Newport News, Va.) got the visiting Mountaineers to within 56-53 with 5:07 to play, but they scored only on two free throws the rest of the way until junior guard Jeremy Goode (Charlotte, N.C.) had a three-point play with 36 seconds remaining for the game’s final points.

A three-point play by Wells with 4:48 left gave JMU a 59-53 lead before Mount St. Mary’s junior guard-forward Will Holland (Houston, Texas) hit on two free throws at 4:28 to cut the lead to 59-55. Moore scored on a layup, junior forward Matt Parker (Charlotte, N.C./Statesville Christian) had a three-point field goal, and Wells scored on a driving shot and had a three-pointer to raise JMU’s lead to 69-55 with 50 seconds left.

Mount St. Mary’s had a turnover and missed on four straight shots while going scoreless between Holland’s free throws at 4:28 and Goode’s three-point play at 0:36.

Mount St. Mary’s, which finished second in last week’s Northeast Conference Tournament to Robert Morris, led by as many as eight points (17-9) during the opening half and was up 31-30 at halftime. JMU, however, shot 55.2 percent (16-29) overall from the field and 50.0 percent (4-8) on three-point attempts during the final period. Curtis had 12 points and Wells during the second half after Moore led the Dukes with 13 first-half points.

JMU finished with a 45.8 percent (27-59) shooting mark after hitting on only 36.7 percent (11-30) of its shots during the first half.

Mount St. Mary’s shot only 39.0 percent (23-59) overall and but 34.5 percent (10-29) during the second half. The Mountaineers hit only four of 15 three-point tries (26.7 percent) for the game.

Moore hit on nine of 15 shots, including his only three-point try, and had five rebounds in 28 minutes.

Curtis hit on six of 10 shots and had a career-high five steals and three rebounds and assists, and Wells added five rebounds and two assists while playing 38 minutes.

Goode led Mount St. Mary’s with 11 points

Notes: Moore’s previous JMU scoring high of 18 points came Jan. 24 at home against Hofstra... JMU’s win Wednesday was the Dukes’ first in postseason play since beating West Virginia 57-50 in the 1983 NCAA Eastern Regional at the Greensboro Coliseum... That season was the third of three straight years JMU won an opening round NCAA Tournament game... Wednesday’s game was only the second men’s postseason game at JMU (the Dukes hosted New Orleans in the 1990 NIT first round)... JMU senior forward Juwann James (Jacksonville, Fla./Raines) played only 13 minutes because of a hand injury, and freshman forward Andrey Semenov (St. Petersburg, Russia/Blue Ridge School)didn’t play because of illness.