HARRISONBURG — March was an emotional rollercoaster for James Madison’s women’s basketball program.

And while the month of madness may be done, the Dukes are one of the few teams left playing into April.

JMU withstood cold-shooting stretches and more than one Georgetown rally Sunday to take down the Hoyas 54-44 and advance to the WNIT semifinals.

Jackie Benitez hit four 3-pointers and finished with a team-high 14 points to spark the Dukes, who will play host to Northwestern in a semifinal matchup 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Convocation Center.

“You’re going through so many peaks and valleys,” JMU coach Sean O’Regan said. “It’s been a different year. Practices are crazy right now, because no one is full strength. It’s a really different experience for me because we’ve played almost this far before and been able to go full practice. We’ve got to have fun. We’re two games away from being able to end this season a winner.”

Kayla Cooper-Williams scored 12 points and had nine rebounds and four blocked shots for the Dukes while Kamiah Smalls finished with 13 points as JMU made it four consecutive victories since a shocking, injury-riddled loss to Hofstra in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament three weeks ago that effectively knocked JMU out of the NCAA Tournament field.

“Since we started this tournament, I’ve been telling them this honestly might be a blessing in disguise,” Smalls said. “It’s not the goal that we came in here with, but the path that we’ve followed so far to get to where we are is pretty amazing. It blows my mind sometimes. You have two leading scorers that break their hand and you turn around and you are playing Virginia Tech at home in the third round, a round a lot of people probably didn’t even think we’d make it to. It might be on the same level as winning the CAA championship.”

O’Regan said three nights earlier he figured it would be nearly impossible for his team to match the intensity of Thursday’s thrilling victory against Virginia Tech and former Dukes coach Kenny Brooks filled with more subplots than a Kurosawa film.

You wouldn’t have guessed it in the early minutes Sunday as Madison got off to one of its best starts of the season, forcing the Hoyas to call a timeout three and half minutes into the game after a Jackie Benitez 3-pointer put the Dukes ahead 10-2.

But Georgetown soon buckled down on defense and a pair of 3-pointers from Nikola Kovacikova helped the Hoyas tie the game at 12 early in the second quarter. But JMU responded, thanks in large part to Cooper-Williams getting it done on both ends of the floor, putting up eight points, six rebounds and a pair of blocks in the first half as the Dukes held a 25-17 lead at halftime.

“Her length, her ability to block shots is really unique,” Georgetown coach James Howard said. “She keeps you from getting downhill on a lot of stuff and they switch out front on a lot of guard stuff to keep you within their gap play and they are disciplined in doing it. At the end of the day, if they are beat, they have a rim protector.”

Cooper-Williams’ presence helped the Dukes Hold Georgetown to 27.3 percent shooting for the game.

Neither team lit it up offensively as the second half began, but Benitez’ third 3-pointer of the game gave JMU a 13-point third-quarter lead before Georgetown closed the third on an 8-3 run to get within four with 10 minutes to go. The Dukes stretched the lead to 18 in the fourth before one final Georgetown push, but JMU was able to withstand and keep the season alive for at least a few more days.

“Again, we have to thank our administration for supporting us the right way and getting us another home game, which is awesome,” O’Regan said.