By Staff
Special to The Star
March 21, 2001
STARKVILLE – Even with a valiant second-half effort put together by Mississippi State, James Madison defeated the Lady Bulldogs 63-61 in front of 2,224 fans at Humphrey Coliseum Tuesday night.
After senior Meadow Overstreet connected on two free throws to tie the game with 14 seconds left, James Madison's Jess Cihowicz hit a running five-footer to put the Dukes up by a basket with 1.3 seconds remaining, and MSU's desperation heave at the end of the contest came up short.
Sophomore LaToya Thomas finished with a game-high 21 points, which was her 12th consecutive 20+ point contest and the 24th time in 31 games this season. Thomas has scored in double digits in all 63 games of her college career.
The Lady Bulldogs opened the second half with an 11-0 run to cut the Dukes lead to four at 31-27 with 16:40 remaining. Junior Jennifer Fambrough, who finished with 15 points, poured in seven during the stretch and senior Cynthia Hall led the charge defensively, picking up five of her game-high seven steals in the first 10 minutes of the second period.
Hall finished the game with 12 points.
After a Cihowicz layup extended JMU's lead to seven with 11:47 left in the game, State went on a 13-5 run capped by a Thomas jumper with 5:20 to take its first lead of the contest, 49-48.
The game went back and forth throughout the last three minutes, and MSU trailed by five with 27 seconds remaining before Hall connected on two free throws to cut the lead to 61-58. Hall then came up with a steal and was quickly fouled by JMU's Shanna Price.
Hall missed the front end of the one-and-one, but Fambrough came up with the rebound.
Fambrough was fouled and made the first of two free throws, and Overstreet grabbed the rebound.
Overstreet, too, was fouled and connected on both of her shots from the charity stripe to tie the contest with 14 seconds remaining.
The Dukes outrebounded State 34-26, and outshot the Lady Bulldogs 46 percent to 42 percent. State did win the turnover battle, committing just 10 while forcing 17.
MSU did not get on the scoreboard until the16:40 mark in the first half, and went into the lockerroom down 31-16.
The Lady Bulldogs shot just 26 percent in the opening period compared to JMU's 48 percent. The Dukes outrebounded MSU 20-10, and State pulled down only one offensive board in the half.
James Madison was led by Nadine Morgan's 17 points and Price's nine rebounds. Cihowicz added 16 points and Price poured in 15.