FSU women cruise past James Madison

James Madison isn't a big name program but the Dukes have had a nice run of success lately. The Dukes had a sterling 27-6 (17-1 CAA) record last year. JMU also won the Colonial Athletic Association championship last year en route to the NCAA Tournament. They also finished #31 in the RPI last year which makes them FSU's fourth toughest non-conference opponent according to that metric.

JMU is good enough to give FSU a real battle had the Noles come out unfocused. Fortunately for Nole fans the exact opposite happened as FSU started the game with a 17-4 run and never looked back winning by a 84-64 score to run their record to 3-1 on the young season.

The Dukes were led by senior guard and Tallahassee native Precious Hall. The former Maclay Marauder scored a game high (for either team) 27 points. Hall took 28 shots to get those points. No other Duke took more than seven shots for the game.

Shakayla Thomas let the way for FSU with 17 points and seven rebounds while Chatrice White chipped in with 16 off the bench. The Seminoles won the rebounding battle yet again (39-35) but struggled behind the arc shooting only .294 (5-17).

Leticia Romero (13pts, 4eb, 3ast) started for the first time this season. In an interesting development she played extended minutes at the off guard spot when paired with fellow senior Brittany Brown (9pts, 8reb, 6ast, 4stl) who played the point. It will be interesting to see if Coach Sue Semrau tries this more often. Since both players can clearly handle the ball, this alignment may serve to get Romero more shots which would be a positive for the offense since she shoots a high percentage (43.9%, 44.7% 3PT last year).

This game was FSU's fourth in nine days. Now the Seminoles will take a bit of a break before heading down to the U.S. Virgin Islands to take on Winthrop in the Paradise Jam on Nov. 24th.