Terriers Off To Fast Start, Down James Madison, 83-72
December 21, 2000 | Men's Basketball
BOSTON, Mass. - Junior forward Stijn Dhondt (Borem, Belgium) hit 7-of-8 free throws, and grabbed two key offensive rebounds in the final 1:17 of play to lead the men's basketball team to an 83-72 win over James Madison University at Case Gymnasium on Thursday (Dec. 21).
Dhondt finished with nine points, all from the foul line for B.U., which, at 6-3, is off to its best start since the 1996-97 squad that went 25-5 and earned a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The Terriers won only six regular-season games and seven games over all last season. The 83 points scored by the Terriers are a season-high.
The game began promising for B.U., which opened the contest on a 10-3 run. The Terriers held as much as a nine-point advantage, 27-18 with 7:21 left in the half after a layup by junior forward Jerome Graham (North Minneapolis, MN).
Dwayne Braxton, who had a game-high 20 points for James Madison, then keyed an 18-6 run with three three-pointers, to give the Dukes a 36-31 lead with 2:25 left in the opening stanza. The Dukes led 39-38 at the break.
Dennis Wolff's team, which had a solid first half, took it up a notch in the second.
Freshman forward Jason Grochowalski's three-pointer 4:24 into the second half gave the Terriers the lead for good, 43-41. Grochowalski scored a career-high 17 points for B.U.
The Terriers got clutch second half three-pointers from Grochowalski, Paul Seymour (19 points), Derrick Breland (career-high seven points), and Billy Collins (career-high 13 points) to take a 65-58 lead with 6:17 left in the game. The Dukes could get no closer than four points the rest of the way.
Braxton got the Dukes within 67-63 with 3:33 left, but Seymour responded with a three.
David Fanning, who had 17 points, canned a three of his own to cut the deficit back down to four. Dhondt then hit a pair of free throws, and after Fanning missed the back end of a 1-and-1, grabbed a huge offensive board off of freshman Ryan Butt's (Lancaster, PA) missed three-point attempt. That sent Breland to the line, who hit a pair of free throws to give B.U. a 74-67 lead with 1:18 left. Dhondt, who was 0-for-1 from the field, scored all nine of his points in the final two minutes.
The Terriers, led by Dhondt's free-throw shooting, hit 16-of-19 shots from the line in the second half, 84 percent.
For the game, the Terriers shot 43 percent, on 26-for-60 shooting. JMU shot 38 percent, on 23-for-60 shooting.
With the win, head coach Dennis Wolff now has 99 career victories, one shy of the century mark and just two away from tying the all-time mark of 101 held by Mike Jarvis.
The Terriers will next travel to Providence on Thursday, December 28 for a game with the Friars at 7:30 p.m.
