Game 14 at James Madison on 12/28/2019 at 4:00 P.M.

[triplec2195]

We're up by six and we're winning the game from the foul line that's there foul line based on all their misses!!

[triplec2195]

Up by 6 with 24.5 seconds and we have the ball.

[triplec2195]

Somewhat of a miracle victory. I believe we shot over 70% in the second half. This game had an L written all over it but clearly their pathetic FT shooting doomed them in this game. A big win after only playing one half. 82-76 win!!

[HUSID74]

Great road comeback. Free throws tell the tale. Ours made, theirs missed.

[HofstraHockey]

7 for 22. That's the only stat that mattered.

[Cards]

After playing for only 20 minutes, HU fortunate to get the W today.

Much better perimeter D in the second half. Poor defense in the paint for the entire game - we must get better in that regard.

We continue to be extremely streaky with our shooting. At least we got to the line enough to make the difference.

Need less streakiness from TC shooting 3's. Need more from IK, HH, and KS. The latter two provide zero offense and the former reverted to earlier season play for this game.

In the end, a road win to open the season is not too bad!!

[EvanJ]

We led by as much as 8 to 80-72 and won 82-76. We shot threes 7-28 (.250) and made 5 of 10 in the second half to get that high. JMU didn't shoot threes well either at 7-24 (.292), and they shot free throws 7-21 (.318). All seven JMU who attempt a free throw didn't make more than half. Matt Lewis, who led them with 22, shot 4-9, which lowered his free throw percentage from .728 to exactly .700.

Pemberton shot field goals 9-15, threes 3-6, and free throws 4-5 to score 25, and he led us with 8 rebounds. Ray scored 18, and Buie and Coburn scored 15. Buie had 6 rebounds to tie Trueheart for second on us, and had 4 of our 10 assists. Kante had 5 points and 4 rebounds, but played 20 minutes before he was our first foulout of the season. Burgess (2), Silverio (2), Trueheart (0), Schutte (0 with no shots), and Hughes (0 with no shots) were our bench players. Pemberton, Ray, and Kante had 2 assists. Coburn and Trueheart had 1 block. Coburn, Pemberton, and Burgess had 1 steal. Here are our starters' points per game changed:

Pemberton: 17.1 to 17.6
Buie: 16.6 to 16.5
Ray: 12.5 to 12.9
Coburn: 11.3 to 11.6
Kante: 9.3 to exactly 9.0

Matt Lewis led JMU with 22 points, and his 6 rebounds were below his average of 7.1. Deshon Parker scored 17, tied his career-high with 3 threes, had 4 rebounds, and had 8 assists with only 1 turnover. Lewis and Parker are co-point guards, but Lewis had only 1 assist, so he went from having 8 more than Parker to 1 more than Parker. JMU asked Parker if he thought he had as many options to pass to as quarterback Ben DiNucci. Dwight Wilson, who averaged 10.1 points and 10.3 rebounds, had a double-double and raised that a little with 12 points and 11 rebounds. He and Pemberton with 8 were the only players with at least 7 rebounds. Darius Banks, who was their second leading scorer at 14.1, scored 6 because he shot horribly. He shot field goals 2-10 with 1 missed two and 2-9 threes along with missing his only free throw. He committed 3 fouls and led all players with 4 turnovers.

Free throw percentage decided the game. If JMU had shot free throws 14-22 (.636 which is below average) instead of 7-22, and everything else was the same, they would have won by 1. 13 was unlucky for JMU as our comeback started when we went down 13 with 17:39 left. JMU has shot free throws 50-92 (.543) in their last four games, with one game at .815 and three games at .524 or lower. They shot free throws .528 or lower in six of fourteen games! If all other teams remained the same today, they would fall to 333rd of 353 in free throw percentage at .620.

[Wags]

7 for 22. That's the only stat that mattered.

But we were once told over at CAAZone that "free throws don't matter!"

7/22 is unfathomable. Even 15/22 (still not good, at under 70%), might've won the game for JMU. That would've been another 8 points in a 6-point game.

Although that's the main story in this one, I prefer to focus on Pemberton. For the second time in three games, both on the road, he emerged big time. After waiting through most of the non-conference schedule for Pemberton to do that consistently, he is finally starting to show that maybe he can be counted on as a leader the rest of the way. If so, that'll make Hofstra tough to beat in the CAA. What he did at Princeton and JMU is a start, but it's a good sign. The first 11 games of the season, Hofstra hadn't won a game in which Pemberton scored at least 20 points (mainly because he had only done that twice and they lost both in that stretch). And now we've seen that happen twice in the last two games since (he had 27 at Princeton and 25 at JMU and they won both... and very nearly three straight times - he had 19 in the win over Manhattan).

[triplec2195]

Nobody is really talking about Caleb's play yesterday and after watching the replay of the entire game although he missed a few shots that he took he had a steal and a breakaway layup but more importantly then that he was hawking the ball handlers and making them feel uncomfortable. It was important that he got 13 minutes in this game and more then held his own. I just wish we could get Silverio on the right path since he could be a big plus giving us scoring off the bench. Same is true obviously in the post while we didn't get scoring from Stafford he did give us 6 boards.

[Cards]

Nobody is really talking about Caleb's play yesterday and after watching the replay of the entire game although he missed a few shots that he took he had a steal and a breakaway layup but more importantly then that he was hawking the ball handlers and making them feel uncomfortable. It was important that he got 13 minutes in this game and more then held his own. I just wish we could get Silverio on the right path since he could be a big plus giving us scoring off the bench. Same is true obviously in the post while we didn't get scoring from Stafford he did give us 6 boards.

You're right triplec, CB played some good minutes. More on the defensive end where as you say he "hawked the ball handlers". He was all over them! What I though was interesting was that he was in the game while DB was playing. He was not in to give DB a breather. Its a nice option to have a 6'3" PG come in to give the team a DEFENSIVE lift. And as many have said, its helps that he get some minutes if he is to be our main PG next season.

[HUSID74]

As they were discussing on the Madison boards, the key to this game was Joe changing the offense up in the second half. We stopped chucking threes and focused on attacking the rim to shoot 70 percent mostly on layups and then drawing fouls...It worked quite well!

[Pride97]

Nobody is really talking about Caleb's play yesterday and after watching the replay of the entire game although he missed a few shots that he took he had a steal and a breakaway layup but more importantly then that he was hawking the ball handlers and making them feel uncomfortable. It was important that he got 13 minutes in this game and more then held his own. I just wish we could get Silverio on the right path since he could be a big plus giving us scoring off the bench. Same is true obviously in the post while we didn't get scoring from Stafford he did give us 6 boards.

You're right triplec, CB played some good minutes. More on the defensive end where as you say he "hawked the ball handlers". He was all over them! What I though was interesting was that he was in the game while DB was playing. He was not in to give DB a breather. Its a nice option to have a 6'3" PG come in to give the team a DEFENSIVE lift. And as many have said, its helps that he get some minutes if he is to be our main PG next season.

Joe brought Caleb up a contributor that you won’t see on the stat sheet in the post game, so clearly he was pleased with his play as well. Good to see him get those minutes in a conference game.

Very happy with an opening road win!


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[Wags]

As they were discussing on the Madison boards, the key to this game was Joe changing the offense up in the second half. We stopped chucking threes and focused on attacking the rim to shoot 70 percent mostly on layups and then drawing fouls...It worked quite well!

Isn't this almost always the case with this team? Even going back years, even under other coaches?

Basketball's not a hard game when you are committed to playing it the right way and you're disciplined enough to avoid the same bad habits that you know hurt you in the past.

[Polito]

As noted, really really nice seeing Pemba's play the last few games - really stepping up and showing out. Starting to see more of the player he was hoped to be...

Very happy to see Burgess getting a few opps, doing some things to make an impact. Bright future.

Silverio remains quite frustrating - such potential. Hope it clicks for him soon.

Conf road win against another offensive-focused team to kick off CAA play - all positive vibes - way to come back and pull away. Work in progress, but they are evolving and making some nice strides forward.