Dukes Drop Heartbreaker to College of Charleston

Thursday, January 12

Harrisonburg, Va.

7 p.m.

James Madison University

5-13 (3-2CAA)

College of Charleston

14-4 (5-0CAA)

Col. of Charleston

James Madison

1/12/2017 10:49:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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HARRISONBURG, Va. - Senior guard Jackson Kent became the 30th player in program history to score 1,000 career points on Thursday evening, but James Madison dropped a heartbreaking 53-51 decision to College of Charleston in Colonial Athletic Association action at the JMU Convocation Center.

The Dukes (5-13, 3-2 CAA) stormed out to a 31-24 lead at halftime, but went just 5-of-22 (22.7 percent) from the field in the second half as the Cougars (14-4, 5-0 CAA) stormed back.

JMU led for 34:18 of the contest, but Charleston went ahead 52-51 on a jumper from junior Joe Chealey with 24 seconds to play. After the Dukes' jumper caught iron with less than five seconds left, the Cougars came down with the rebound and sank a free throw to seal the contest.

Kent paced the Dukes with 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting and a 3-of-7 performance from behind the arc, while his three-pointer at the 15:04 mark in the first half took him over the 1,000-point barrier for his career. He ended the evening with 1,011 career points, two points out of 29th on JMU's all-time scoring list.

Senior forward Yohanny Dalembert continued his stellar play off the bench for the Dukes, racking up 13 points and six rebounds across 21 minutes, while senior forward Paulius Satkus added seven points and six boards.

JMU controlled the majority of the contest, leading by as many as eight in the first half and as many as 11 after halftime before the Cougars battled back to take their first lead at 41-40 with 12:23 to play. Neither team led by more than four for the remainder of the game, with Chealey providing the go-ahead bucket with less than 30 seconds on the clock.

The Dukes contained Chealey, who entered Thursday averaging 15.9 points per game, for much of the contest, holding him to six points on 2-of-7 shooting, but guard Grant Riller went 7-of-11 from the floor on his way to 19 points to lead the Cougars.

QUOTING COACH ROWE
"Defensively, we were where we wanted to be tonight, with the exception of the last possession. There were some things from the scout that we didn't quite execute, but we're still just putting too much pressure on our defense. We have to score some points."

UP NEXT
The Dukes will remain at home for the weekend, as they welcome Elon to the Convocation Center for a 4 p.m. contest on Saturday, Jan. 14. Elon bested Hofstra by a 96-80 margin at home on Thursday evening to improve to 10-8 (2-3 CAA) on the season.