James Madison pulled out a gutsy 74-70 victory against Hofstra on Sunday to complete a weekend sweep of the defending Colonial Athletic Association champs and take sole possession of first place in the conference standings.

Now the Dukes just hope the victory doesn’t turn out to be of the Pyrrhic variety since there was a downside to the win.

JMU (13-5, 8-1 CAA) played the entire second half without Matt Lewis, but Vado Morse scored 14 of his team-high 16 points after Lewis left the game to lead the Dukes to another CAA victory.

The Dukes have won seven in a row and it’s the best start in CAA play since Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” topped the charts (the 1991-92 season), but now the Dukes await official work on Lewis’ injury.

“I’m just extremely proud of the guys,” first-year JMU coach Mark Byington said. “It’s a difficult circumstance to try to do that without, what I think — and it’s not even close — is the Player of the Year in the conference. For different guys to step up and make plays when their number was called. I’m really proud of the guys.”

Lewis, the CAA’s leading scorer and Preseason Player of the Year, hopped off the court late in the first half appearing to be in a bit of pain. He checked back into the game a few minutes later before pulling up with an injury again. He returned to the Dukes’ bench, where he sat holding his left knee.

After walking back to the floor under his own power at halftime, Lewis remained on the bench with an ice pack when the game resumed.

“It doesn’t look serious, but it was serious enough to pull him out,” Byington said of Lewis. “It doesn’t look like any kind of surgery or anything like that is needed. He bumped knees. We’ll see what it looks like in the next couple of days. I can tell you Matt wanted to go in. He was bargaining with team doctors and trainers to go back in. He’ll be fine, but we don’t know if it is a day, a week or two weeks. But he’ll be fine.”

Even in the absence of their star, the Dukes opened the second half strong. Hampton product Jalen Ray proved tough to stop for Hofstra, but JMU seemed to have somebody who could answer each time the Pride got within a couple of possessions.

Ray finished with a game-high 25 points, but JMU got production from almost everyone in the rotation. Terrence Edwards put up 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists while Michael Christmas added 12 points and six rebounds.

A day earlier, JMU completed a dramatic come-for-behind victory. After trailing by as many as 12 points, the Dukes took their first lead of the afternoon on a 3-pointer by Christmas with 1:44 remaining in the game.

JMU got another big 3 from the freshman Edwards and closed the game with three breakaway dunks to hold on for a four-point victory over the Pride, which entered the weekend third in the CAA standings.

JMU built a double-digit lead in the first half with both Christmas and Edwards coming off the bench and picking up where they left off on Saturday. But while Game 1 was a track meet, Sunday’s rematch felt like more of a boxing match with plenty of contact and bodies flying.

The Dukes stepped it up defensively after Byington called out their performance on that end following the Saturday victory, holding the Pride to 29-percent shooting in the first half. But even after a buzzer-beating putback by Edwards to give JMU a 32-22 lead at intermission, Lewis’ injury was the story as the Dukes went to the locker room.

“Coaches have always told me to stay ready, you never know when it is your time to step up,” Edwards said Sunday. “I saw Matt go down and we all kind of came together. We all wanted to win that game for Matt.”

What’s next for the Dukes is not entirely clear. With Delaware pausing basketball activities due to COVID-19, JMU has one regular-season series left on the schedule as of Sunday afternoon. It’s possible the Dukes add another game or two for the coming week, but Byington said at this point in the season he prefers to play on the weekend and avoid playing a CAA opponent a third time.

Notes: JMU, in the official poll, was picked to finish ninth this year in the CAA ... The Dukes won both games this weekend by four points. The last time JMU won back-to-back games in the same season by four points or less was in February 2016, against Hofstra, also at home, and at the College of Charleston ... The Dukes last made the NCAA tourney in 2013.