WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The William and Mary women's basketball team suffered a 65-43 setback to preseason CAA favorite James Madison on Sunday afternoon at Kaplan Arena. With the decision the Tribe fell to 6-9 overall and 0-4 in league action, while the Dukes improved to a perfect 4-0 in the CAA and 13-2 overall.
Senior Jazmen Boone led the Tribe with 13 points on 5-of-11 shooting to go with three steals. Sophomore Alexandra Masaquel finished with six points, three rebounds and a team-best four steals, while freshman Abby Rendle and sophomore Marlena Tremba led the Green and Gold with five rebounds each.
Six straight points from Boone staked the Tribe to the early lead. Sophomore Latrice Hunter found Boone for a lay-up off an inbounds pass to give the Green and Gold an 8-4 advantage less than five minutes into the contest.
JMU answered with five straight to move back in front. Ashley Perez canned a triple from the left side, before Jazmon Gwathmey lay-up gave JMU a 9-8 lead with 14:44 left. The teams traded buckets, before freshman Jenna Green knocked down a triple from the right side to put W&M in front, 19-17, at the 8:41 mark.
The Dukes retook the lead with seven in a row, including a triple from Hailee Barron with just over five minutes remaining in the half to force a Tribe timeout. Out of the break, Boone halted the spurt with a 3-pointer of her own from the left side to cut it to 24-22, but JMU responded with a 12-2 run to open up its largest lead of the half.
Barron hit another 3-pointer during the stretch, Precious Hall and Lauren Okafor each added four, while an Angela Mickens steal and fastbreak lay-up capped the spurt. Her bucket at the 2:28 mark gave the Dukes their largest lead of the opening 20 minutes at 37-24. Green provided the final points of the half with a jumper, and the Tribe trailed at the intermission, 37-26.
Masaquel scored four early points in the second half, including a nice jumper from just inside the top of the key to cut it to 39-30 with 17:53 left. JMU's Toia Giggetts matched Masaquel, before Hall knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers to cap an eight-point Duke run to push the margin to 47-30 four and a half minutes into the period.
The Tribe closed to 14, 50-36, on a Hunter lay-up at the 10:50 mark. JMU's lead reached its largest at the final margin of 22, 65-43.
W&M finished the game at 33.9 percent (19-of-56) from the field, but were just 8-of-28 (28.6 percent) in the second half. The Green and Gold also finished with 10 steals and blocked six shots, including two from Rendle. Senior Kyla Kerstetter and Hunter were the Tribe's leaders in assists with three each.
The Tribe forced James Madison into a season-high 22 turnovers. It was the first time this season the Dukes were forced into 20, or more, miscues.
JMU shot 45.8 percent (27-of-59) from the field and outrebounded the Tribe, 45-29. The Dukes also finished with 13 steals and eight blocked shots. Okafor led three JMU players in double figures with 16 points and just missed a double-double adding nine rebounds and six blocked shots. Giggetts and Hall added 12 points apiece for the visitors.
W&M wraps up its three-game home stand with Drexel on Thursday night at Kaplan Arena. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed live for FREE in HD on Tribe Athletics TV via TribeAthletics.com.
