This season has been record breaking for the James Madison Dukes. The Dukes started off the season very hot. In their first game of the season the played the Michigan State Spartans. The game was played @ Michigan State. At the time, the Michigan State Spartans were ranked at number four in the country, while James Madison was unranked. James Madison was in control for most of the game. The game went into OT. James Madison had possession of the ball for over 28 minutes of the 45-minutes of playing time. James Madison led by as much as 13 points. James Madison was down by 4 with 90 seconds left to play. 2 Free throws from Freidel and a layup from Bickerstaff forced the game into Over Time. Michigan State only shot 1-20 from the 3-point line. The James Madison Dukes ended up winning the game 79-76. This was James Madisons highest ranked win ever. And only their second ranked win in the history of the school. Terrence Edwards led the scoring for the Dukes, having 24 points. TJ Bickerstaff was second, having 21 points and 14 rebounds, a double double.
James Madisons second game of the season was against Kent State. This game was an absolute thriller in all ways. The game started off being physical. With 12:30 left to play in the first half, the game was tied 10-10. By halftime, the Dukes lead was 43-38. Kent state went on a run to start the second half, tying the game, then taking their first lead of the game. At 6:23 left in the game, the Dukes were down by 10, 78-68. They then fastly closed it in making it 80-77. The Dukes were down 89-84 with 3.8 seconds left in regulation, getting 5 quick points in under 4 seconds to send it to OT.
The Dukes took the lead in the first overtime 100-94 with less than a minute left. Kent State made one more push, and they tied the game sending it into a second overtime.
JMU ended up winning 113-108 on a 2OT thriller.
The rest of their season has been nothing but spectacular. Going into conference play, James Madison was undefeated. During this time, the dukes entered the top 25. After their 3rd win of the season, they debuted at #24, making it their first top 25 appearance ever. The dukes ended up starting the new year at #19 in the nation, but quickly left, as they lost to Southern Miss. on January 6, 81-71. The Dukes only had 2 more losses the rest of the season. Both of them being against Appalachian State, 59-55, and 82-76.
They ended the regular season on a 10-game win streak, heading to the SBC tourney hot. They won their first game 81-64 against Marshall. Next, they beat Texas State 73-68.
In the SBC championship game, they beat Arkansas State 91-71. Williamsburg native, Xavier Brown, started the game off hot, having 16 of the Dukes first 26 points and ending the first half with 21 points, while being 5-6from 3pt and 8-10 from the field, also collecting 10 rebounds in the game and a couple of steals and assists. Brown led the team in scoring this game, second leading scorer, Terrance Edwards having 19 points.
The Dukes got an automatic bid to March Madness due to the fact that they won their conference tournament. They are a 12 seed. In the first round they will play Wisconsin, the 5 seed. If they win this game, they will go on to play the winner of the 13 seed Vermont vs the 4 seed Duke in the Round of 32. If JMU and Duke both win, JMU will be faced with a tough task to beat Kyle Filipowski, Jared McCain and the Blue Devils.
