Saturday's match with the James Madison Dukes will be the first game between the two schools as Conference foes.
There have been 4 games, all non-conference matchups, between the two teams. The series stands 3-1 in favor of the Dukes, with the series split 2-2 in terms of home and road games.
Oddly, in both 2010 and 2015, the teams played twice. On December 7th, 2010, the HERD won 67-63 in the CAM. That was in the Pitts, Kane, Terrell Baines, Shaq Johnson, Nigel Spikes, Johnny Thomas Days. The Herd also lost a close game, 80-73, 15 days later in Harrisonburg.
The teams met again in a 10-day span in early play in 2015. The Dukes won 89-75 at the CAM and followed that up with a 107-84 rout in Harrisonburg. This was in coach D'Antoni's second season, IIRC. Keys to JMU's easy wins were the facts that they shot at the 50% level from BOTH the field and from 3-point range in BOTH games. In all FOUR games, JMU handily won the rebounding battle. Key players for the HERD in the 2015 game were James Kelly, Ryan Taylor, Austin Loop, Scotty Browning, and a couple of youngsters, Penava and Burks!
From what I've heard and read about this year's JMU team, keys to a HERD victory would include better and tighter defense to hopefully alter/hinder their shooting, and certainly for the HERD to do better on the boards. Of course, have an effective overall offensive game would help a lot! The Dukes come to Huntington also 1-0 in Conference play, winning fairly comfortably, 63-47, over GA State before a sparse crowd in Atlanta on Thursday.
In sum, pretty obvious that we owe those Purple Clad dudes from over across the Blue Ridge, BIG TIME!!!
Let's get a large, loud and JACKED KELLY GREEN crowd in the CAM Saturday afternoon, and initiate the DUKES to SBC Basketball, Thundering Herd Style!!!
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