Dukes Work On Defense Ahead Of WNIT Opener

HARRISONBURG — James Madison’s midseason turnaround was sparked by its defense.

After a disappointing 4-7 record after non-conference play, the Dukes relied on their defense to set the tone in Colonial Athletic Association play and rode that stinginess to a share of the regular-season women’s basketball title. JMU’s suffocating defense relaxed in the CAA Tournament, allowing College of Charleston and Elon to shoot a combined 49.1 percent from the field before the Phoenix ousted the Dukes 76-53 in the semifinals Friday.

“We’re just flat,” sophomore Kamiah Smalls said. “We don’t have the same intensity. Our energy isn’t there and we’re not flying around the court. We always want to make it seem like there’s one extra on the court with us, and I don’t think we’ve had that packed defense these past three games.”

Dating back to the regular-season finale against William & Mary on March 3, JMU’s main struggle has been allowing an unheralded player to get confident.

Against the Tribe it was sophomore Nari Garner drilling all four of her 3-point attempts in the third quarter to rally William & Mary from an 18-point deficit to within three. Charleston’s Deja Ford made three 3s for the first time all season against the Dukes while teammate Cailin Dorsey was a perfect 4-for-4 from deep to double her season scoring average.

“We still have to, as a team, be able to tighten the screws on whatever player that is,” second-year JMU coach Sean O’Regan said. “I think we’ve done a really good job with our focus on their main player, but sometimes it’s some of those other players and we’re not quick enough to realize [they’re] really hot, let’s make sure we get the ball away from her and take her opportunities away from her.”

As Smalls pointed out, JMU’s status as the benchmark of CAA programs make it an easy opponent for teams to get excited to play. Several times this season, the Dukes have seen career performances against them, but Smalls said JMU needs to do a better job at disrupting the opponent’s offensive rhythm to prevent those breakout games.

“I think everybody loves getting hot against JMU,” Smalls said. “You always want to play better defense than they do offense, so for us it’s just about disrupting their flow and getting them out of their sets and just making them uncomfortable to the point where they can’t get into rhythm.”

One of the main reasons William & Mary, Charleston and Elon were able to get into a rhythm against the Dukes was how they elected to attack JMU’s ball-screen defense. Madison mostly hedges against screens instead of switching in order to prevent pick and rolls from hurting it inside.

However, the Tribe, Cougars and Phoenix took advantage of that tactic in a big way by knocking down their open shots on the perimeter. In their first 17 CAA games, JMU allowed teams to shoot just 27 percent from the behind the arc. That number jumped to nearly 43 percent as the Dukes allowed each of their final three opponents to hit nine 3-pointers.

Junior point guard Logan Reynolds said the Dukes worked extensively on their pick-and-roll defense Tuesday to fix those holes ahead of Thursday’s home game against East Tennessee State at 7 p.m. in the first round of the WNIT.

“All three of those teams took advantage of our pick and rolls, they found holes and they attacked them really well,” Reynolds said. “The majority of teams that play us are going to take advantage of how we hedge on ball screens. Our rotations are late because we’re hedging. We worked on different things today to hopefully strengthen our ball-screen defense and hopefully we’ll be able to deal with the 3 more.”

O’Regan said he hasn’t been disappointed in how his team has rallied to the shot after defending screens, highlighting a 3-pointer Elon’s Lexi Mercer hit with a hand in her face. However, he said the timing of when JMU contests those shots also had an impact against good shooters.

“I think we’ve overall done pretty well forcing misses, but it’s part of basketball,” O’Regan said. “You might get the exact same contest, but if I’m standing at the 3-point line wide open for five seconds before the ball comes to me, I think I’m wide open. But if you’re in the area code of me, I don’t think I’m wide open. You can get the same exact contest on me, but if I’m wide open for the three seconds prior, I feel more wide open and I feel more confident.”

As soon as Elon’s shots began to fall in the CAA semifinal, the Dukes could not muster an adequate response. As the lead grew, O’Regan said he could sense his team was pressing more on offense, and it resulted in some disjointed play.

Reynolds said the fact the Phoenix shot 52.7 percent from the floor didn’t allow JMU to get comfortable on defense and the Dukes were demoralized a bit.

“Once we didn’t get a stop and they were hitting a majority of their shots, it’s kind of hard for us to get into a flow defensively,” Reynolds said. “Just them making shots and tough shots, it was kind of disheartening on defense, but what we need to do is get back to our basics and get back to our foundation and keep working.”