Jan. 9, 2004
HARRISONBURG, Va. - Myriah Spence's 10-foot jumperwith 8.6 seconds left lifted Old Dominion (2-0, 7-5) to a 75-73 win over James Madison (0-2, 4-8) in Colonial AthleticAssociation women's basketball Friday night at the JMUConvocation Center.
ODU, which had trailed by seven with 11 minutes to play,used an 18-7 scoring run to take a 69-65 lead with 5:32remaining. Spence started the run with back-to-back three-pointers at 10:12 and 9:38, and Monique Coker scored six ofODU's 18 in that spurt.
With the Monarchs up 71-67 after Coker hit two free throwsat 4:49, JMU freshman Meredith Alexis connected on two freethrows at 1:53 to cut the lead to 71-69. On ODU's nextpossession, Coker's jumper rolled off the rim. Alexis gotthe rebound, and freshman Lesley Dickinson drove the lengthof the court for a layup at 1:29 that tied the game at 71-71.
Spence's 12-foot jumper at 1:06 gave ODU a 73-71 lead. JMUfailed to score on its next possession, but ODU's ShareeseGrant missed the front end of a 1+1 free throw with 48.3seconds left. JMU controlled the rebound, and freshmanShirley McCall scored on an offensive rebound with 27seconds to tie the game at 73-73.
Following Spence's go-ahead basket in the waning seconds, ashort jumper by McCall at the buzzer fell short.
JMU held a 38-34 halftime lead and had been up by as many asnine (28-19 at 7:16) in the first half. The Dukes' biggestlead of the second half was seven, on three occasions in thefirst 8:25.
Coker, who was nine-for-11 at the foul line, finished game-highs of 21 points and nine rebounds and was one of four ODUplayers in double figures. Spence had 18 points, MaxNhassengo 17 and Grant 10.
JMU red-shirt junior Mary Beth Culbertson came off the benchto lead the Dukes with a career-high 20 points, 15 of whichcame on three-pointers. Dickinson scored 18 and had a game-high seven rebounds and a career-high six assists. McCallfinished with 12 points.