Coming off a disappointing loss at home earlier in the week, James Madison reminded everyone why the expectations were sky high entering the season.<\/p>\n
And the reasons for optimism went well beyond the usual suspects.<\/p>\n
Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year Peyton McDaniel put up her typical performance \u2014 15 points, three rebounds and three assists in 27 minutes \u2014 but she was far from alone in the Dukes\u2019 87-38 trouncing of non-conference opponent Queens (N.C.).<\/p>\n
SMU transfer Kylie Marshall had 18 points and seven rebounds in her JMU debut, with the former top-35 high school recruit coming off the bench after suffering a broken finger before the start of the season.<\/p>\n
Freshman center Grace McDonough added 12 points, two blocks and two steals and sophomore Angela Williams had 11 points, six rebounds and three blocks for the Dukes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can be a great team, and I think that\u2019s exactly why,\u201d said JMU guard Bree Robinson, who had six points, nine assists and three steals. \u201cWhen we\u2019re deep and we\u2019re all on and all supporting each other, we can be really powerful and really dominant. I think that\u2019s exactly what we\u2019re going to be moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queens (2-1), in its sixth season under former JMU player and assistant coach Jen Brown, got off to an impressive start with blowout victories against Gardner-Webb and Mars Hill to open the season.<\/p>\n
The Royals hung tough with the Dukes for much of the first quarter as well, before Marshall checked in and nailed back-to-back 3-pointers to give JMU (2-1) some breathing room.<\/p>\n
A bucket from Ashanti Barnes early in the second quarter made it a 20-10 lead, but a 3-pointer from Queens guard Ana Barreto helped keep the Royals reasonably close.<\/p>\n
McDonough, however, was finding herself on the offensive end for the Dukes.<\/p>\n
The freshman center from outside Philadelphia got the start in each of her first three college games, but made one basket total against Kent State and George Mason.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s safe to say I have way more confidence in Grace than she does,\u201d JMU head coach Sean O\u2019Regan said. \u201cI know what I see and I know how special she\u2019s going to be. She\u2019s got great hands and the challenges for her are going to be the physicality and how you deal with getting blocked. We\u2019re conscious of where she is in her journey, which is a freshman.\u201d<\/p>\n
But by the time McDonough scored in transition with three minutes to go in the second quarter, she already had eight points and the Dukes were pushing the lead.<\/p>\n
McDaniel scored seven quick points, and all of a sudden, JMU led by 17 late in the half.<\/p>\n
Barnes and McDaniel opened the third quarter with easy baskets and Queens called a timeout, facing its biggest deficit to that point, 44-24, with barely two minutes gone in the second half.<\/p>\n
Before long, a traditional three-point play by McDaniel off an inbounds pass made it a 28-point Dukes advantage.<\/p>\n
Queens didn\u2019t get its first field goal of the third quarter until just before the buzzer, a 3-pointer from Barreto that cut into what had been a 59-25 JMU lead.<\/p>\n
JMU pushed the lead to 49 points in the fourth quarter as steals, fancy passes for layups and deep 3-pointers got added to the Dukes\u2019 highlight reel as they prepare for a game next Wednesday at home against Liberty.<\/p>\n
\u201cOverall, I was really proud,\u201d O\u2019Regan said. \u201cI thought Bree was great today. Our defense gave us a lot of opportunities to play and run in transition. A fun game, and I\u2019m just excited we could get back to where we should be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Queens 10 14 4 10 \u2014 38James Madison 18 22 19 28 \u2014 87QUEENS (2-1) \u2014 Lewis 0-4 0-0 0, Thompson 1-4 0-4 3, Mapp 0-7 2-2 2, Jones-Grant 2-4 0-0 4, Freire 1-6 0-0 2, Kopilevich 0-1 0-0 0, Hutcherson 0-1 0-0 0, Barreto 3-12 0-0 8, Morris 0-1 0-0 0, Hicks 2-4 1-5 5, Colvin 2-6 1-2 5, Franks 4-13 1-1 9. Totals 15-63 5-14 38. Totals 15-63 5-14 38.JAMES MADISON (2-1) \u2014 McDaniel 6-11 2-3 15, Marshall 6-9 2-2 18, Soltys 1-2 0-0 2, Barnes 4-7 1-4 9, Williams 5-10 0-0 11, Robinson 3-7 0-0 6, Eleby 0-3, 0-0 0, Walton 1-2 0-0 3, Stephenson 2-6 3-6 8, McDonough 5-7 2-2 12, McLeod 1-3 1-1 3. Totals 34-67 11-18 87.3-Point Goals \u2014 Queens 3-13 (Barreto 2-6, Thompson 1-2, Freire 0-2, Lewis 0-2, Mapp 0-1), James Madison 8-20 (Marshall 4-5, Williams 1-4, McDaniel 1-2, Stephenson 1-2, Walton 1-1, Robinson 0-2), Eleby 0-2, Barnes 0-1, Soltys 0-1). Rebounds \u2014 Queens 42 (Hicks 6), James Madison 46 (Marshall 7). Assists \u2014 Queens 4 (Colvin 2), James Madison 21 (Robinson 9). Total Fouls \u2014 Queens 14, James Madison 15. A \u2014 2,057.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coming off a disappointing loss at home earlier in the week, James Madison reminded everyone why the expectations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35420,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4567,12595,20897,20894,20893,20895,9,24,63,122,124,123,319,20896],"class_list":{"0":"post-35419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-college","10":"tag-harrisonburg","11":"tag-james_madison","12":"tag-james_madison_university","13":"tag-level","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-nyc","17":"tag-queens","18":"tag-queens-headlines","19":"tag-queens-news","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-sun_belt_extra"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}