WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WINS CAA TITLE, EARNS NCAA TOURNAMENT BID

Sunday, March 14

Home

12:30 p.m.

James Madison University

26-6

Old Dominion

18-13

James Madison

Old Dominion

WOMEN'S BASKETBALL WINS CAA TITLE, EARNS NCAA TOURNAMENT BID

3/14/2010 7:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va., March 14, 2010 - Conference champion and NCAA-bound.

Those are the coveted titles the James Madison women's basketball team is wearing after winning the Virginia 529 College Savings Plan 2010 Colonial Athletic Association Women's Basketball Championship Sunday. The Dukes earned their latest distinctions by building an early lead and going on to defeat Old Dominion 67-53 at the JMU Convocation Center.

JMU, the tournament's No. 2 seed, gave up a three-point field goal during the game's opening possession but scored the contest's next 14 points and led the rest of the way. The Dukes were up 43-29 at halftime, raised their margin to 51-32 with just less than 12 minutes to play and survived a rally that got Old Dominion to within five points with 7:24 left in the game.

JMU with the victory raised its season record to 26-6 and earned the CAA's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament, which begins next weekend. Pairings for postseason play will be announced Monday (March 15) evening.

Old Dominion, the tournament's top seed, fell to 18-13 with the loss.

Tournament most outstanding player Dawn Evans (Clarksville, Tenn./Northeast), JMU's junior guard, led the Dukes with a game-high 25 points and seven assists in 37 minutes. Junior center Lauren Jimenez (North Bergen, N.J./North Bergen), who joined Evans on the all-tournament team, and freshman guard Tarik Hislop (Silver Spring, Md./Paint Branch) also reached double figures in scoring for the Dukes with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

JMU sealed the championship by outscoring the Monarchs 13-4 during the game's final 7:08 and allowing only two field goals over the final eight minutes. After Old Dominion got to within 54-49 on two free throws by sophomore center/forward Tia Lewis (Poulan, Ga./Worth County) with 7:24 left, Jimenez hit on a layup off a pass from freshman forward Nikki Newman (Harrisonburg, Va./Turner Ashby) and on two free throws, and Evans scored on a fast-break layup at 5:58 for a 60-49 JMU lead.

Junior guard Jasmine Parker's (Norfolk, Va./Maury) 15-footer pulled Old Dominion to within 60-51 with 5:06 left, but the Monarchs didn't score again for nearly three minutes and JMU hit on seven of 10 free throws during the final 3:41.

After Parker's three-pointer 27 seconds into the game gave Old Dominion a quick lead, JMU got points from four players while taking a 14-3 advantage by the opening half's 12:47 mark. Evans capped the run with the first of her four three-point field goals, and she hit for three-pointers on consecutive JMU possessions to give the Dukes a 22-11 lead with 8:52 left in the first half.

Old Dominion got to within 27-21 on a three-pointer by freshman guard Jackie Cook (Hinckley, Ohio/Regina) with 5:10 left in the half, but JMU junior guard Courtney Hamner (Manassas, Va./Osbourn Park) answered with a three-pointer on JMU's next possession to ignite a 16-8 JMU burst over the final 4:52 of the half. Evans had a three-pointer and two free throws during the run and passed to Jimenez for layups twice during the half's final 44 seconds.

Hislop and Evans each had a pair of field goals as JMU's raised its 14-point halftime margin to 51-32 with 12:56 to play before Old Dominion used a 17-3 run to get to within 54-49. Lewis had seven points and Parker six, including a three-pointer, during the Monarch run. The Monarchs had rallied from a 12-point halftime deficit to beat Delaware during Saturday's semifinals.

JMU shot 38.7 percent (24-62) overall to Old Dominion's 33.9 percent (20-59) and had a 49-34 rebounding margin. Three Dukes finished with eight rebounds, including Jimenez, Newman and redshirt se