Brooks: No Excuses

James Madison coach Kenny Brooks said his team is done with excuses. The women's basketball team rolled to a 93-49 victory over Georgia State on Thursday night with two upperclassmen feeling ill and seemed to prove him right.

"No excuses." Two very strong words, especially considering the next game on Madison's schedule: Old Dominion.

"We have no excuses," Brooks said. "The kids come down, if they're a little bit sick or they don't really feel like practicing, that's not an excuse. ...We've kind of adopted that the last couple of days you know, no excuses let's go out, you're feet hurt it doesn't matter you can play through it we need to get tough and do that."

Madison (9-4 overall, 2-0 in the Colonial Athletic Association) won its third straight after losing four in a row in December. Tamera Young, the CAA's leading scorer and rebounder, was one rebound short of her sixth double-double this season. She scored 18 points to go along with nine rebounds against the Panthers. While Young is the only returning starter from last season's team, Georgia State coach Lea Henry said not to overlook the effect of her experience.

"Experience helps them, with the way Young understands what it takes to win and you've got a couple other upperclassmen that have been around a lot of success," Henry said. "I just like the way they have so much energy, the way they get after it."

Those other upperclassmen Henry was talking about? Two of them were not at full strength. Senior forward Jennifer Brown and junior forward Kisha Stokes who were both feeling ill, and played less than normal minutes. Brown is suffering from a slight case of bronchitis, and Stokes has been diagnosed with "partial pneumonia."

Freshman Lauren Jimenez stepped up for the Dukes with 15 points and eight rebounds. The 6-foot-4 center created a mismatch for Georgia State and scored double digits for the second time in a row and this season.

"We were a little bit sluggish in the beginning, but we've got some kids who are under the weather," Brooks said. "Jennifer Brown's under the weather, Kisha Stokes [is] under the weather, that's why they were limited so much especially in the second half."

That's where Jiminez showed why Brooks intended for her to be Meredith Alexis' successor, scoring nine of her 15 points in the second half. Alexis graduated in spring 2007 as JMU's all-time leading scorer, and many expected JMU to be in a rebuilding phase this season as a result.

Georgia State's efforts to negate the size advantage failed more and more as the game went on.

"The first half we were kind of dead and not fightin' and playin as hard we usually do," Young said. "The second half we picked it up and we started fighting' for loose balls and rebounding more. ...they're just a run and gun team, they don't really set up plays that much, so we knew that from the beginning that that's what they wanted to do."

Madison plays at ODU on Sunday, the first meeting of the teams since ODU beat JMU to claim its 16th straight CAA Championship last season. The Monarchs (11-3, 2-0) are second place in the CAA, behind Virginia Commonwealth (12-1, 2-0).