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Wells Sits With Heart-Related Injury

For the first time in his career, Wednesday at Willliam & Mary, senior forward Julius Wells didn't play in a James Madison basketball game. Wearing a black sweatsuit and rendered a cheerleader on the Dukes' bench, Wells was held out of action because of a health scare.
After Monday's loss to Old Dominion, in which Wells played 31 minutes and scored seven points, the 6-foot-5 senior grasped his chest in apparent pain. He attended the hospital afterward, coach Matt Brady confirmed Wednesday, and will be not play through this week as precaution.
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"He had a virus and we think the virus affected his heart for 24 hours and hopefully there won't be any complications from it," Brady said.
Brady said Wells has another appointment with a doctor on Friday and "probably won't play on Saturday [against Northeastern] and then after Saturday he'll probably be good to go. … At this point there's not going to be any more tests. And we think it's fine."
Wells did not elaborate on his condition before the game.
But asked if he remembered the last time he didn't start a James Madison basketball game, he knew the answer right away.
"Murray State," Wells said, correctly.
Wells has started 112 career games - 12 shy of a Dukes record - including 76 straight dating back to Nov. 20, 2009, when, as a punishment for being late to practice, Brady sat him for two minutes to start a game in Miami against Murray State.
That was the second game of Wells' sophomore season. He's been on the court for 2,598 minutes since then.
The Dukes have had other heart issues in the past four years. Juwann James missed 11 games in 2008-09 because of a heart ailment, and 2009 signee Eric Beard never played a game for the Dukes because of an irregular heartbeat.
Wells seemed to be in good spirits Wednesday, and that he made the trip to Williamsburg is an encouraging sign for his future.
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