TOWSON, Md. – Sunday afternoon the Towson University women's basketball team returns to the court for a game against James Madison.
Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. in the third Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) game of the season for both teams. The game will be broadcast on FloSports with audio available from the Towson Sports Network,
Ben Rosenbaum will be on the call and Rashad Christian will be providing color commentary. Links for the stream and free live stats can be found on the schedule page on TowsonTigers.com.
LAST TIME OUT
Towson is coming off a strong victory on Wednesday night against Chestnut Hill College. The Tigers defeated the Griffins 86-49, led by
Nukiya Mayo with a double-double 19 points and 10 rebounds. Towson saw 15 of its 16 active players score, including career nights for sophomore
Shavonne Smith with 16 points and junior
Rayna Barbour with 10.
Kionna Jeter also scored 13,
Q. Murray led the Tigers in assists with seven. The home team jumped out to a 20-6 lead at the end of the first and led the entire game, reaching a peak of 40-point advantage with 1:04 to go. Towson also saw a season-best 55 rebounds against the Griffins.
SCOUTING THE TIGERS
Towson is led by
Kionna Jeter offensively, the redshirt junior is averaging 18 points a game. Two more Tigers join her in the double-figure scoring club with
Nukiya Mayo posting 14.9 points a night and
Q. Murray averaging 10.2. Mayo leads Towson in rebounds with 6.8 per game, while Murray leads in assists with 4.8 a night. Following Wednesday's win the Tigers sit at 5-8 overall and hold a 0-2 record in CAA action.
THE JAMES MADISON SERIES
Sunday will be the 50th meeting between Towson and James Madison, a series dating back to 1980. The Dukes lead the series 44-5 and have won five of the last seven meetings. The last Tiger victory came in 2017 on the road, a 60-55 victory. At home Towson is 4-18 against JMU, the last home win also was in 2017, a 54-51 win in SECU Arena.
LAST TIME AGAINST JMU
Towson hosted the Dukes last March in the penultimate week of the regular season, falling 63-56 in SECU Arena.
Kionna Jeter posted a double-double and two more Tigers posted double figures in the loss as
Danielle Durjan scored 13 and
Nukiya Mayo dropped 12. With 8:04 to go Towson tied the game up 41-41 before JMU rolled out to a nine-point lead with three minutes to go. Jeter drained a jumper cutting the lead to five with 1:22 to go but the Dukes had one free throw and a layup to extend the lead to eight with 23 seconds to go.
SCOUTING THE DUKES
James Madison enters the week in first place of the CAA with an 11-2 record overall and two conference wins. Last weekend JMU defeated both William & Mary and Elon to start conference play. The Dukes are led by Kamiah Smalls with 19.6 points per game, Jackie Benitez is also posting 12.2 points a night. Kayla Cooper-Williams is leading the team in rebounds with 5.9 on average and Lexie Barrier is pacing JMU in assists with 2.5 per game. James Madison has notable wins over Villanova, Georgetown and UCF. Also in nonconference the Dukes faced then-No. 8 Maryland, losing 70-68 at home.
TIGERS IN CAA STATS
As of Friday morning,
Kionna Jeter and
Nukiya Mayo remain in the top-10 of scorers among the conference. Jeter holds fifth with 18 points per game while Mayo is eighth with 14.9. The duo appear again in rebounding, Mayo sixth (6.8 pg) and Jeter eighth (6.5 pg), two other schools have two players in the rebounding top-10 (Charleston and Delaware).
Q. Murray leads the league in assist/turnover ratio with 2.2 and is second in assists averaging 4.8 per game. Jeter continues to lead the league in steals with 3.2 on average while Mayo is second in blocked shots with 1.5.
Ryan Holder is in the top-10 blocks with 1.4 per game and Murray is eighth in steals with 1.9.
TIGERS IN NATIONAL STATS
Kionna Jeter ranks with the best of them in steals, she is 14th nationally in steals per game with 3.23 and 20th with 42 this season. Jeter is in the top-50 nationally in points per game (18.0) and free throw percentage (85.1), ranked 45th and 42nd respectively.
Q. Murray holds on to 51st nationally in assists per game (4.8), 53rd assist/turnover ratio (2.1) and is 69th in total assists with 63. Towson is 30th as a team in blocked shots per game (4.9) and 45th in blocked shots (64).
