HARRISONBURG – Two nights later, James Madison was able to survive its opponent’s last-minute surge.

The Dukes blew a four-point lead in the last four minutes of Thursday’s loss to College of Charleston, but against Elon on Saturday, it would not let that same advantage slip away.

Tyler Seibring’s shot from the same spot from which Joe Chealey sank his winning jumper Thursday hit the back of the iron, and Brian Dawkins’ desperation tip-in fell way short, sealing the Dukes’ 60-59 Colonial Athletic Association win over Elon at the Convocation Center.

“On Thursday, there were a lot of guys who were down and taking it on themselves … it was a team loss,” JMU basketball coach Louis Rowe said. “Tonight was a team win. It was a similar game in that it was a dogfight, it was a battle against a really good team. We had to clamp down defensively in the second half.”

With senior forward Tom Vodanovich out Saturday with a rib injury, classmate Yohanny Dalembert earned his first start in almost a month. Rowe called Vodanovich one of the Dukes’ “energy guys,” but Dalembert provided all of the oomph the Dukes would need.

The senior forward scored 15 points and grabbed a career-best 17 rebounds, 10 of which came in traffic during the second half. He also had a critical block late in the second half that preserved the Dukes’ two-point lead.

“I feel like this most of the time, but tonight was when I decided to turn it up a little but,” Dalembert said. “With a teammate being down, my job as a leader is to step up. I played more minutes tonight because [Vodanovich] was down, so I took advantage of the opportunity, but the sole purpose is to get the win.”

The energy Dalembert brought to the floor helped not only fuel JMU, but the 2,918 fans who were at the Convocation Center on Saturday. Within a span of roughly a minute, the Dukes faithful were on their feet for three separate plays.

First, Dainan Swoope was called for a flagrant-1 foul for intentionally tripping Paulius Satkus while the JMU senior was trying to run up the floor. Exactly a minute later, Joey McLean buried a 3-pointer to give JMU its first lead since it was 7-6 and Dalembert swatted away Elon’s subsequent attempt to preserve the lead the Dukes would not relinquish.

“That play energized [the crowd] and then we fed off the Convo,” Satkus said, “then we got energized and Yohanny makes a great block and the crowd goes wild again. It’s a back-and-forth effort that was amazing to be a part of.”

After allowing Elon (10-9, 2-4 CAA) to drill nine 3-pointers in the first half, JMU (6-13, 4-2 CAA) ratcheted up the defensive intensity and pressure in the second half. The Dukes set up their press and slowed down the Phoenix’s rhythm on offense, forcing Elon into seven turnovers in the half.

Rowe said he thought his team picked up its energy and focus in the second half, the two characteristics that have helped the Dukes win four of their first six conference games.

“We didn’t have energy in the first half,” Rowe said. “We played with more energy and we had more focus in the second half. … In the second half, we needed to create some energy so we were going to have to go out and pressure some more.”

Senior Jackson Kent led all scorers with 21 points while holding down Elon’s best offensive weapon on the other end of the floor. Steven Santa Ana, who led the Phoenix with an average of 13.4 points per game entering the day, was limited to 2-of-10 shooting with Kent following his every move on the court.

Despite playing much better defense in the final 20 minutes, the Dukes struggled to close the five-point halftime deficit they faced. JMU cut Elon’s advantage to one on three separate occasions before it was able to finally re-take the lead with 5:47 remaining.

The Dukes’ lead swelled to six during that 11-0 run, but Elon hit a pair of 3-pointers and Dawkins wrestled an offensive rebound away from McLean and hit a layup in the final 90 seconds to pull the Phoenix within one.

Satkus had the ball stolen from him along the sideline with 22 seconds left, and Santa Ana missed a contested 3 with eight seconds remaining that pinballed out of bounds off a JMU defender to set up the final play.

“It was a great thing for the team,” Dalembert said of the victory. “The team feels good about itself right now. We all put so much work into it, and we’re glad to see it finally paying off.”