ORONO- The James Madison University Dukes shot 55% from the floor, and outscored the Maine Black Bears 29-16 in a decisive third quarter on Sunday afternoon rallying for a 78-71 non-conference women’s basketball win in the Pit at Memorial Gymnasium.
Maine, who hadn’t played since a win over Harvard on December 6, got off to a slow start as JMU opened up an early 12-4 lead forcing a timeout just over halfway through the first quarter. After the timeout, the hosts came alive as Anne Simon hit three 3-pointers and Jaycie Christopher also hit one as they rattled off 12 straight points over a span of about two minutes to jump in front 16-12. The Black Bears would lead 21-16 after one. Maine hit five more 3-pointers in the second quarter, including two more from Simon who had 18 first half points. Another one from Christopher with 1:41 to go gave them what turned out to be the largest lead of the afternoon at 41-29, and would take a 41-33 advantage to the halftime break. They would hit 10-24 from long range over the first 20 minutes of game action.
After Simon drained a three-pointer to open the third quarter, Maine would cool off and James Madison got hot to turn things around. The Dukes used a run of 18-6 to take the lead for good and their first since the opening period 51-50 on a three-pointer by Steph Ouderkirk. They would build their lead to eight in the quarter, before another three-pointer by Simon in the final seconds made it 62-57 heading to the fourth. An eighth three-pointer by Simon early in the final stanza to get her team within two is as close as the Black Bears would get the rest of the way. JMU would later open up their lead to as many as 11, as Maine shot just 31% in the second half and 3-19 (16 %) from behind the arc in falling to 6-5 on the season in their last non-conference home game of the campaign.
Simon had a game-high 34 points, tying her career-high that she reached in a loss to Indiana back on November 30. She was 8-18 from three-point range, while also adding seven rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Adrianna Smith contributed 19 points, nine rebounds, and five assists. Christopher was the only other Maine player in double figures with 11 points. The Black Bears played without Olivia Rockwood and Sera Hodgson. Kseniia Kozlova had 20 points to lead James Madison in the win. Peyton McDaniel added 18 points and 12 rebounds, while Jamia Hazell chipped in 12 points. The Dukes, out of the Sun Belt Conference, improve to 8-3 and outrebounded their opponent in the victory 49-30. Maine has three more non-conference games remaining, beginning on Wednesday in New Orleans, Louisiana in the Tulane Holiday Tournament when they take on Duquesne at 3:30 p.m. Along with Tulane, the other school in the four team tourney is the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Recap/photos/videos by Chris Lessner
