Elon Rallies To Knock Off James Madison, 72-71
Rob Washburn
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HARRISONBURG, Va.- Eighth-seeded Elon rallied from a 15-point second-half deficit and knocked off #1 James Madison, 72-71, Sunday afternoon in the quarterfinals of Hercules Tires CAA Men’s Basketball Championship at the Atlantic Union Bank Center in Harrisonburg, Va.
Sophomore guard Hunter McIntosh scored a game-high 24 points for the Phoenix, including seven in the final 1:13, while Simon Wright hit 4-of-7 treys and added a career-high 18 points.
JMU was ahead 39-29 at halftime and pushed its lead to 54-39 on a Vado Morse layup with 14:34 remaining. Elon (9-8) battled back, outscoring the Dukes 24-10 over the next 10 minutes, and trimmed the deficit to 64-63 on a Wright trey with 4:46 left.
With JMU leading 66-63, McIntosh converted a three-point play with 1:13 to go and then added two more free throws following a technical foul call that put Elon on top, 68-66.
JMU (13-7) tied the game at 68-68 on a pair of Justin Amadi free throws, but Ikenna Ndugba’s driving layup with 31 seconds on the clock put the Phoenix back up by two. The Dukes missed a three-pointer and McIntosh sealed the victory by hitting a pair of free throws with five seconds to go.
Amadi, who was a perfect 8-of-8 from the floor, and Morse led the Dukes with 21 points each, setting a new career-high for Amadi.
Elon shot just 36.8% from the floor, but was 13-of-32 from 3-point range and converted 17-of-19 at the free throw line. JMU shot 41.9% from the floor, but was 6-of-25 from beyond the arc.
Elon’s victory marked the first time since 1991 that a #8 seed defeated a #1 seed in the CAA Tournament. The Phoenix also advanced to the semifinals last year as a #7 seed when they upset #2 William & Mary.
Elon meets #4 Hofstra in the semifinals at 6 p.m. on Monday.