Courtney Hamner leads team as Dukes defeat Liberty Flames

Story by Emmie Cleveland in the Dec. 6 issue of The Breeze

The JMU women's basketball team was missing its leading scorer but still pulled out a win over Liberty University at the Convocation Center yesterday.

Senior guard Dawn Evans, who averages 23 points-per-game, was out with the flu. She sat on the bench in her warm-ups as her team defeated the Flames 54-51.

"We knew that individuals needed to step up," said senior guard Courtney Hamner. "When she's not there, it's definitely a big loss, so we knew we had to step up offensively big time."

Hamner played 36 minutes and led JMU (5-3) with 14 points. She failed to mention, however, that she has been fighting the same bug that benched Evans.

"If Dawn were healthy today, Courtney wouldn't have played," JMU head coach Kenny Brooks said. "Courtney's got the flu. She's got the flu terribly. We held her out of practice yesterday with the anticipation that she wouldn't play and Dawn would play. And then we got the news Dawn couldn't play and Courtney stepped up."

Sophomore Tarik Hislop also helped compensate for Evans' absence, as she took over her usual position at point guard and added 12 points.

The game was closely fought, with five lead changes and the score tied 11 times.

With 12 minutes remaining, the Dukes went on a 13-2 run, giving them their biggest lead of the game at 53-42. Liberty answered immediately with nine consecutive points, putting the game within a basket with less than two minutes on the clock.

According to Liberty head coach Carey Green, an unlikely freshman guard won the game for JMU.

"There's an X factor, and there's no question the X factor was Debbie Smith," Green said. "You look at her stats, and she's not in the stat book, basically, and here's a girl that came in and scored five points and got three rebounds.

"And I think everybody else is playing their game and doing what they're supposed to do, and you have an X factor come in there and made a difference."

Brooks said he put Smith, along with freshman guard Kirby Burkholder, through boot camp this past week in practice to toughen them up.

"I think she learned a lot," Brooks said, "and today she was able to come out and was able to help us tremendously. I'm happy for her because she's our future... She's very talented, it's just a matter of her getting comfortable, and I think she took steps in doing that today."

Senior center Lauren Jimenez was JMU's third player with points in double figures. She added 12 and grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.

"I feel like I can do better," she said. "I mean, yeah, I was consistent. I'm hitting my average... but I feel like my rebounds should go up. Me being able to score down low is going to open a lot up for the guards or other post players."

JMU will continue play with their next two games on the road against Middle Tennessee State University on Sunday and Monmouth University, Saturday Dec. 18.

-CH