EAST LANSING, Mich. – Stifling defense and 45 combined points from T.J. Bickerstaff and Terrence Edwards Jr. propelled the James Madison men’s basketball team to a stunning 79-76 overtime win at No. 4 Michigan State on Monday night at the Breslin Center.
The win marked JMU’s highest-ranked victory ever and just the second top-25 win for the Dukes, joining their 1992 triumph against Cal. JMU also became the first team to hand an AP preseason top-five team a loss in a home season opener since 2001.
Edwards Jr. led three Dukes in doubles figures with a team-high 24 points. Bickerstaff had a double-doubles with 21 points and a game-best 14 rebounds in his debut for JMU, while Michael Green III added 13 points, 11 of which came after halftime.
Trailing 68-64 with just under 90 seconds left, two free throws from Noah Freidel and a Bickerstaff layup forced overtime with the score knotted at 68. After an MSU free throw tied the score at 73, a layup from Edwards Jr. gave the Dukes a two-point lead before Raekwon Horton nailed a three-pointer to give JMU the 78-74 lead.
Michigan State trimmed the lead to 78-76 with three seconds left, and after a Bickerstaff free throw made it a three-point game, the Spartans lost the ball in the final second, clinching the win for the Dukes.
For the Spartans, Tyson Walker led the game with 35 points and six steals, while Coen Carr contributed 14 points.
Overall, the Dukes outrebounded the Spartans 51-48 and held MSU to just 36% shooting, including 1-of-20 from beyond the arc. JMU led for 28:33 of the 45-minute contest, including the majority of the first half with a lead as large as 13. MSU led for just 10:22 and never by more than six points.
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Half
- JMU got off to a hot start, building a double-digit lead less than 10 minutes in.
- Up 13-7, the Dukes reeled off seven in a row, capped off by a triple from Edwards Jr. to seize a 20-7 lead with 10:43 to play in the half.
- JMU led 25-12 with seven minutes to go in the stanza before Michigan State went on a run, scoring 11 of 13 to climb within 27-23 with 4:06 to go.
- The Dukes got the lead back to seven, but the Spartans’ lone trey of the game and trading of buckets made it a 37-33 JMU lead at the break.
Second Half
- The Spartans surged out of the locker room with a 9-4 run to claim their first lead of the game, at 42-41 with 15:16 remaining.
- A three by Green III gave JMU the lead back until a Sissoko dunk squared the game at 44.
- The Dukes took a 48-44 advantage with under 13 minutes to play before MSU responded with 10 straight to take a 54-48 lead with 8:35 to go.
- Threes from Green III and Wooden gave way for an 8-2 run to tie the game at 56 apiece with 5:56 on the clock.
- After much back-and-forth, MSU led 68-64 with 1:26 to go on a fastbreak layup, but the Dukes answered with a pair of Freidel free throws and a game-tying jumper from Bickerstaff with 30 seconds left to send it to overtime.
Overtime
- MSU struck early in overtime, but Edwards Jr. scored five straight on free throws and a three pointer to give the Dukes a 73-70 lead with 1:51 to go.
- The Spartans tied the game with 1:18 to play, but Edwards Jr. came right back with a putback layup with 56 ticks to play.
- MSU cut it to one on a Walker free throw, but the dagger came with 10 seconds left on Horton’s massive trey from the right wing, giving JMU a 78-74 lead.
- Michigan State had a fastbreak layup with three seconds left, and after Bickerstaff went 1-of-2 from the line, Walker lost the ball in the final second to secure the win for JMU.
GAME NOTES
- This was JMU’s second ranked win in program history, joining its 1992 victory over #19 Cal – a game featuring JMU’s former head coach Lou Campanelli.
- JMU became the first team to defeat an AP preseason top-five squad in a home season opener since Western Kentucky over Kentucky in 2001.
- JMU is the first unranked team to hand an AP preseason top-five team a loss in a season opener since Hawaii did so in 2005 against Michigan State.
- The win represented Michigan State’s first home loss in the month of November since 1986.
UP NEXT
JMU stays out on the road for the MAC-SBC Challenge when it heads to Kent, Ohio, to battle Kent State on Thursday, Nov. 9. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m., and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
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